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COPYRIGHT DEFOSIT. 



SELECTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 
IN ECONOMICS 



EDITED BY 

WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, Ph.D. 

Professor of Economics, Harvard University 



SELECTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 
IN ECONOMICS 

TRUSTS, POOLS AND CORPORATIONS 
(Revised Edition) 

By William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., Professor of 
Economics, Harvard University 

TRADE UNIONISM AND LABOR 
PROBLEMS 

By John R. Commons, Professor of Political 
Economy, University of Wisconsin 

SOCIOLOGT AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 

By Thomas N. Carver, Ph.D., Professor of 
Economics, Harvard University 

SELECTED READINGS IN PUBLIC 
FINANCE 

By Charles J. Bullock, Ph.D., Professor of 
Economics, Harvard University 

RAILWAY PROBLEMS (Re-vised Edition) 

By William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., Professor of 
Economics, Harvard University 

SELECTED READINGS IN ECONOMICS 
By Charles J. Bullock, Ph.D., Professor of 
Economics, Harvard University 

ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 

By Guy Stevens Callender, Professor of Political 
Economy, Yale University 

SELECTED READINGS IN RURAL 
ECONOMICS 

By Thomas N. Carver, Ph.D., Professor of 
Economics, Harvard University 



SELECTED READINGS IN 
RURAL ECONOMICS 



COMPILED BY 
THOMAS NIXON CARVER, Ph.D., LL.D. 

DAVID A. WELLS PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY 






GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 



^ 



c > 



COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY 
THOMAS NIXON CARVER 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
5I6.I 




FEB 10 1916 



GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



;t.A418766 



*HM 



PREFACE 

The following selections are chosen with a view to making 
available to the student of agricultural economics a mass of excel- 
lent material which has been published in widely different places 
and which, because it is so scattered, is likely to be inconvenient 
of access. Considerable space has been given to historical ma- 
terial, because a historical background seems necessary to any 
thorough understanding of present tendencies. 

This volume is not intended to take the place of any of the 
manuals that are now available on the general subject of rural 
economy, or agricultural economics, nor is it intended to take 
the place of any of the treatises which are already available on 
any special subjects, such as rural credit, cooperation, soil manage- 
ment, etc. It is designed rather as a handbook to accompany 
some of these manuals and to amplify the student's information 
in the general field of rural economics. 

My thanks are due to the numerous authors who have so 
generously given their consent to this republication of their ma- 
terial and to the publishers who have likewise permitted this use 
to be made of material, much of which has been copyrighted. 

The editor hereby acknowledges his obligations to all these 
gentlemen and can only hope that the usefulness of the volume 
will in some measure justify the generosity which they have shown. 

T. N. CARVER 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION i 

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

The Influence of the Crops upon Business in America, by A. P. Andrew 5 
The Influence of Farm Machinery on Production and Labor, by H.W. 

Quaintance 32 

Crop Yields and Prices, and our Future Food Supply, by G. F. Warren . 10 1 

Some Suggestions for City Persons who desire to Farm, by G. F. Warren 130 
Iowa and Bavaria Crop Yields per Acre and per Man, by E. A. 

Goldenweiser 148 

II. AGRICULTURAL HISTORY 

A. European 

Agriculture in the Middle Ages, by William F. Allen 151 

Inclosures in England in the Sixteenth Century, by Edwin F. Gay . . 163 
Yeoman Farming in Oxfordshire from the Sixteenth Century to the 

Nineteenth, by H. L. Gray . .'. 183 

The Decline of Landowning Farmers in England, by H. C. Taylor . . 204 
The Epochs of German Agrarian History and Agrarian Policy, by Dr. 

Carl J. Fuchs . ' ' '.« 223 

B. American 

The Disposition of Our Public Lands, by A. B. Hart 254 

Southern Agriculture, 1 790-1 860, by M. B. Hammond 267 

The Agricultural Development of the West during the Civil War, by 

E. D. Fite 302 

Agricultural Development in the United States, 1900-1910, by J. L. 

Coulter „ ■; . . . 3 17 

The Movement of Wheat-Growing: A Study of a Leading State, by 

C. W. Thompson 337 

III. LAND TENURE 

A. Ownership 

The Law and Custom of Primogeniture, by George C. Brodrick . . . 352 

The Land System of France, by T. E. Cliff e Leslie 410 

The Land System of Belgium and Holland, by Emile de Laveleye . .433 
The State Small-Holdings in Denmark, by H. Rider Haggard . . . 478 



vin READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

B. Tenancy 

PAGE 

^ Tenancy in the United States, by George K. Holmes 487 

Tenancy in the North Atlantic States, by B. H. Hibbard 498 

Tenancy in the North Central States, by B. H. Hibbard . . . '. . 508 

n. Tenancy in the Southern States, by B. H. Hibbard 523 

Tenancy in the Western States, by B. H. Hibbard . 536 

IV. AGRICULTURAL LABOR 

On the Recollections of a Hired Man, by M. A. Barber 547 

The English Agricultural Labourer, by H. Rider Haggard 558 

V. THE FARMER'S BUSINESS 

Some Important Factors for Success in General Farming and in Dairy 

Farming, by G. F. Warren 575 

The Farmer's Income, by W. J. Spillman 630 

Profits that Farmers receive, by E. H. Thomson 636 

VI. AGRARIAN MOVEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 

{/ The Rise of the Granger Movement, by C. W. Pierson 645 

The Outcome of the Granger Movement, by C. W. Pierson .... 658 

The Populist Movement, by Frank L. McVey 666 

- An Analysis of Agricultural Discontent in the United States, by C. F. 

Emerick 699 

VII. RURAL ORGANIZATION AND MARKETING 

Agricultural Syndicates in France, by Henry W. Wolff 764 

Relation of Jobbers and Commission Men to the Handling of Produce, 

by C. W. Thompson 769 

Studies in Egg-Marketing, by C. W. Thompson 783 

The Technique of Mediaeval and Modern Produce Markets, by Abbott 

P. Usher 827 

' Studies in the Marketing of Farm Products in France and England, by 

Emmett K. Carver and Grafton L. Wilson 851 

VIII. AGRICULTURAL POLICY 

v The Irish Land Purchase Act of 1903, by C. F. Bastable 898 

State Bounties and the Beet-Sugar Industry, by P. T. Cherington . .914 

Beet Sugar, by F. W. Taussig 919 

Agricultural Credit in the United States, by Jesse E. Pope. . . . . 936 

INDEX 971 



SELECTED READINGS IN 
RURAL ECONOMICS 

INTRODUCTION 

THE STUDY OF RURAL ECONOMY 

THERE is a saying that the specialist who is only a specialist 
is a very poor specialist. The purpose of this saying is not to 
discourage specialization but to make better specialists. It fits in 
with that ideal of education which requires that the educated man 
should know everything about something and something about 
everything. This remark applies to the agricultural specialist as 
well as to any other kind, and this ideal of education applies to 
the educated farmer as well as to any other type of educated man. 
In opposition to the argument for a broad education for the 
farmer, the question is sometimes pointedly asked — Will this 
or that kind of knowledge enable the farmer to grow more corn 
or more potatoes ? The answer is that even though it does not, 
it is still worth while provided it enables the corn and potatoes 
which he does grow to feed a better man. 

It is fair to say, however, that the first attempt to broaden the 
farmer's education should be to broaden his knowledge of his own 
occupation or profession. In order to broaden his education it is 
necessary that he study something else besides the technical 
process of growing his own crops, but it is not necessary at once 
or in the very first instance to jump to the opposite extreme of 
making him skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians. It is my 
purpose in this discussion to argue that the first effort in broaden- 
ing his education should be to give him a wide historical knowl- 
edge of agriculture as practiced in different ages of human history 



2 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and different stages of civilization, and also as it is practiced at 
the present time in various climates and among various peoples. 
Such knowledge is fascinating, it is cultural, and it is practical — 
all in the highest degree ; it therefore has three important quali- 
ties which should entitle it to a place in any system of education. 
It is fascinating because it acquaints us with the basic facts of 
human experience, not only during that brief span of human life 
commonly called the historical period but during that vastly greater 
and more important period which lies back of the dawn of re- 
corded history. The efforts of our ancestors for untold genera- 
tions to wrest a living from nature have exercised their inventive 
faculties and strained their powers of reason and imagination 
more than any other group of problems, not even excepting those 
of war and religion. By some mysterious process, or the alchemy 
of heredity, we have deposited somewhere in our present human 
nature a fundamental instinct for contrivance which delights to 
exercise itself in the study of these oldest human problems. Not 
even the city dweller, born and bred in the pent-up quarters of a 
town, can rid himself of these elemental human instincts. Just as 
the squirrel in captivity continues to obey the primal impulse to 
hoard ; just as the captive bird feels an impulse to migrate with 
the recurrence of the migratory season ; so the city dweller every 
spring, with the recurrence of the planting season, feels within 
himself an irresistible impulse to dig. Let us not be too hasty 
in ridiculing his feeble efforts to make things grow in a city back 
yard. He can no more help doing what he does than a young 
man can help falling in love or a young woman can help fluffing 
her hair when she thinks that someone is looking at her. By a 
similar elemental impulse the student finds a rare fascination in 
the study of the plow — that oldest and most perfect tool known 
to the human race ; and the ox yoke in its various forms — 
the oldest implement by means of which man has utilized other 
sources of power than his own muscles to do his work. The 
evolution of the plow and the various forms in which it is still 
found in operation, the multitudinous forms in which the ox yoke 
is fashioned, and a study of the reasons for each form are among 
the most fascinating subjects with which the mind can occupy itself. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

The study of rural economics is cultural because it has to do 
with men in the broadest possible sense. Men have lived with- 
out printing presses or printed books and even without books of 
any kind. The qualities which characterize our race were fixed 
before there was art or architecture. Very few, if any, changes 
or improvements in the race have taken place since, but, except 
for the lowest savage who lived exclusively by hunting and fish- 
ing, no people has ever lived without agriculture, that is, without 
some means of increasing the soil's capacity to produce desirable 
things for human consumption. I remember reading a fascinating 
article a few years ago on the oldest trade in the world. By 
"trade " was meant a specialized occupation which would exclude 
agriculture. The oldest trade, or specialized occupation, accord- 
ing to that article, was working in flint. This was fascinating 
because it introduced one to a very important chapter in the life 
of the human race. That is cultural information which gives one 
the widest possible knowledge of and sympathy with man in all 
phases of his existence and all stages of his civilization. But even 
the making of flint instruments is less valuable in this respect than 
the knowledge of the various processes by means of which man 
has extracted a living from the soil. 

This is practical knowledge in a strict business sense, because 
a wide knowledge of rural economy, of the epochs in agricultural 
history, of the changes that have taken place, of the reasons why 
they have taken place, of the tendencies of the present, and of the 
reasons for those tendencies gives one a broader basis or a larger 
background for the study of the specific problems of the present 
than can otherwise be secured. We are now in a period of agri- 
cultural reconstruction. Far-reaching and fundamental changes 
are taking place. Every period of fundamental economic change 
is a period of strain and stress, of large success and unmerited 
failure. There are tides in the affairs of men, which, taken at 
the flood, lead on to fortune, but, it should be added, which, 
taken at the ebb, lead on to misfortune, to failure, to bankruptcy. 
Periods of rapid and fundamental change are the periods when 
these tides ebb and flow most powerfully. They who adjust them- 
selves to the new conditions are carried as by a favorable tide to 



4 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

success. They who fail to adjust themselves are carried as by an 
ebbing tide to failure. It is therefore of the utmost practical 
importance that this broad view of rural economy and agricul- 
tural history shall be acquired by every agricultural student. It is 
important to the individual farmer who is charged primarily 
with the duty of running a successful farm in order to bring 
* up a successful family. To embark on an agricultural enterprise 
which is dying is to try to swim against the tide, whereas to 
embark on an enterprise which is growing is to swim with the 
tide. It is important also to the agricultural statesman who must, 
so far as government can be of assistance to our basic industry, 
direct the machinery of government in the interest of agriculture. 
To attempt by government effort to stimulate an industry which, 
under the natural operation of economic forces, will necessarily 
decay, is a waste of human effort. It is better to lend encourage- 
ment and aid to those who are growing, in order that they may 
grow strong and healthy, than merely to try to arrest the decay of 
those who are already in process of decaying. 



I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE CROPS UPON BUSINESS 
IN AMERICA 

By A. P. Andrew 
(From The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1906) 

FLUCTUATIONS in business prosperity result from a wide 
assortment of causes. They are variously attributed to epi- 
demic states of mind, to changes in legislation, to the develop- 
ment of new industrial processes, to the opening of new trade 
routes, to excesses in banking, or, again, to changes in the meth- 
ods of industrial organization. With all of these factors, men 
may, by taking thought, foresee in some degree their movement, 
and in some measure may control their outcome. Business wel- 
fare in every community depends, however, very largely upon 
another set of factors, whose caprices none can predict and none 
can govern, — factors which are closely connected with conditions 
of weather and of temperature. As there is no country where 
agriculture is not pursued or where agricultural products are not 
used either as foodstuffs or as raw materials, there is no country 
where the chance conditions of weather are not of vital conse- 
quence. Nor is the influence of the harvests confined solely to 
agricultural areas and occupations. It reaches far beyond the 
fields. It affects manufacturing and transportation interests, bank- 
ing and foreign trade, and is responsible for many of the larger 
deviations in commercial prosperity. 

The product of agriculture differs from the output of all other 
branches of production in being so largely independent of human 
regulation and so little adjustable in amount to demand. This 
results not merely from the dependence of the harvests upon 



6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

meteorologic conditions, over which man obviously has neither 
control nor prophetic vision, but also from the fact that the agri- 
cultural output is in most cases produced by a far greater number 
of disconnected individuals. The several crops are grown upon 
a countless number of widely scattered farms, the owners of which 
in each case are of necessity ignorant for the most part of the 
intentions and operations of other producers. Even were there 
no uncertainties of weather to contend against, there would still 
be serious and unforeseeable maladjustments of supply because 
of the inability of individual producers to gauge the total output, 
— an inability which is obviously more marked in the case of 
agriculture than in either mining or manufacture. 

In the following paper we shall study the influence of this 
peculiarly fortuitous factor upon general business, and attempt 
to measure the extent of its responsibility for the advances and 
reverses of trade in America during the past thirty or forty years. 

I 

One can easily discern four or five important ways in which 
general business conditions are likely to be affected by the success 
or failure of the crops. 

i. In the first place the size of the crops exerts a considerable 
influence over the community's power to purchase other goods. 
If the season has been successful, the farmer is almost sure to 
increase his expenditures, and use at least a part of his new earn- 
ings. He may build an addition to his house or erect a new 
barn, or he may purchase a piano or a new buggy or new house 
furnishings or new clothes for himself and his family. Even if 
he does not use all of the additions to his income himself, but 
deposits some of them in the banks, they will none the less 
help to swell the market for other goods in the hands of other 
customers of the bank. If, further, on account of a plentiful har- 
vest, the prices of food and of certain sorts of clothing are reduced, 
another result to be expected is that people in general outside of 
agricultural pursuits will have more to spend upon other things. 
A bountiful harvest is thus significant for almost all of the occu- 
pations in a community. It involves an immediate expansion of 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS J 

the demand for the most varied sorts of merchandise, and the 
economic machine in most of its branches is apt to be stimulated 
to some extent through increased consumption. On the other 
hand, when the agricultural output fails, the farming population 
is at once obliged to retrench, to forego contemplated improve- 
ments in their farms, to curtail many of the usual or expected 
expenditures, perhaps even to withdraw deposits from banks, and 
so abridge the working capital of others. If, too, the prices of 
breadstuffs and meats rise, many of the rest of the community 
will have to devote a part of what they are accustomed to spend 
upon other things to the purchase of food. They will have to 
abstain from some of their usual purchases in order to buy these 
necessaries of life. At such times, then, not only will the indus- 
tries which produce primarily for the farmers feel the pinch of 
reduced consumption, but other industries as well, which produce 
objects that in ordinary times are consumed by the masses of men. 
The clothing trades, for example, may be expected to feel the dif- 
ference, and the liquor, tobacco, and other similar occupations are 
also likely to be affected. 

2. In the second place the very solvency of a large part of 
the agricultural population, and of those connected by business 
relations with them, depends to a considerable degree upon the 
outcome of the year's harvest. Whether or not the farmer will 
be able to repay loans which he has contracted, whether or not 
he will be able to settle his bills with tradesmen and dealers, and 
whether or not he can pay for his agricultural machinery and farm 
improvements, will in many cases be decided by the size of the 
crop. If the crop fails, his various creditors — the banker who has 
lent him money, the mortgagee of his farm, the shopkeepers from 
whom he has bought his supplies, and any others to whom he is in- 
debted — will either have to wait, or, if they force a settlement, will 
not improbably suffer losses. If these delinquencies occur upon too 
wide a scale, the failure in agriculture may be propagated into other 
fields, and bankruptcies among bankers, dealers, and manufacturers 
may ensue. If the harvest, on the other hand, is good, and can be 
marketed at profitable prices, the capital of the affiliated creditors 
will once more be set free and made ready for new activities. 



8 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



3. In the third place, in a country where agricultural prod- 
ucts form an important factor in the foreign commerce, the size 
of the crops will exert a considerable influence upon the balance 
of trade and the international movement of gold. The extent of 
the bank reserves in the great financial centers and the contrac- 
tion or expansion of general credit may in consequence depend 
most importantly upon the output of the season's harvests. This 
consideration is of peculiar concern in the United States, where 
until quite recently two thirds or more of the total exports have 
consisted of such produce. 1 When the American crops are 
abundant, our exports very naturally tend to increase, and gold 
imports are apt to occur. That in turn means large cash hold- 
ings in the banks, with, under normal conditions, the accom- 
paniments of expanding credit and buoyant trade. When, on 
the other hand, the crops fail, the movement of exports and of 
gold swings in the contrary direction, and in that event we are 
apt to be confronted with dwindling bank reserves, a contingent 
contraction of the general credit, declining business, and less 
activity in trade. 

4. Again, the size of such crops as are not consumed in the 
locality of their production is of great significance for the trans- 
portation interests. One has only to observe the fluctuations in 
railway earnings month by month during the course of any normal 
year to realize how important a factor the harvests are in railway 
affairs. It is in the months of the harvests,, from August to 
December, that railway traffic and railway earnings normally reach 
their highest levels, the earnings not infrequently being 30 to 

1 Exports of agricultural products, per cent of total exports : 



891 
892 

893 
894 
895 
896 
897 



Per Cent 



74-51 
73-69 
78.60 
74.05 
72.28 

69-73 
66.02 
66.23 



Year 



1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 

I9°3 
1904 
1905 



Per Cent 



70.54 
65.19 
60.98 
64.62 
62.83 
62.73 
59.48 
55-°3 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 9 

40 per cent higher in September or October than in May or 
June. A bumper crop in the case of a commodity like wheat, 
which is so largely consumed at a long distance from the place 
of its production, is consequently a source of great profit to the 
railroads concerned, while a poor crop means diminished traffic 
and reduced earnings. 

5. Finally, the success or failure of certain crops is also of 
significance for those industries into which the crop enters as a 
raw material. A failure of the wheat crop will obviously depress 
the milling industry, and a failure of the cotton crop will curtail 
the earnings of the cotton factories, not only those in the vicinity 
of the cotton-growing states, but those in New or old England 
as well. A failure of the corn crop similarly will diminish the 
profits of cattle-raising, may work injury to the packing interests, 
and to some extent may affect also the distillers of whisky. 

There are, then, five important ways in which the conditions of 
agriculture are likely to influence general business : (1) by affect- 
ing the community's consumption of other goods ; (2) by affecting 
the solvency and credit of farmers and those engaged in dealings 
with them ; (3) by affecting the balance of trade and the bank 
reserves ; (4) by affecting transportation interests ; (5) by affect- 
ing manufacturing interests for which the agricultural product is 
a raw material. 

Obviously, the greater the proportion of the population of a 
country that is engaged in agriculture, the more severely the 
country will be affected by a sudden fluctuation in the crops ; 
and, as so large a proportion of the American people are occu- 
pied with agricultural pursuits, we should naturally expect the 
condition of the crops to be of greater influence upon trade condi- 
tions in this than in many other countries. Those who live in the 
large cities or are familiar only with such infertile regions as the 
Atlantic seaboard are apt to forget that we are still very largely 
an agricultural people. According to the census of 1900, out of 
a total of twenty-nine million persons reckoned as gainfully 
occupied, more than ten millions were engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. That is to say, more than one third of those engaged 
in gainful occupations were connected with farming of one or 



IO READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

another sort. We should naturally expect, then, the output of agri- 
culture to be of peculiarly intimate and conspicuous influence 
upon general business conditions in the United States. 

II 

At the same time there are, needless to say, other factors than 
the output of our farms which may affect our prosperity, and 
whose influence may quite outweigh the influence of our harvests. 

i. First, it will be noted that in the case of those agricultural 
products which belong in large degree to foreign trade the finan- 
cial success or failure of the harvest in any given locality depends 
to some extent upon the output of the same product elsewhere. 
An unusually large harvest in this country, if accompanied by 
small harvests abroad, obviously means prosperity for the Ameri- 
can farmers, means large exports and high prices, tends to mean 
incoming gold and expanding credit. But, if accompanied by ex- 
cessive crops abroad and flagging demand, it means, on the other 
hand, extraordinarily low prices, diminished exports, and depres- 
sion in agriculture, if not in general trade. We have examples of 
each of these situations in the period centering about 1880. In 
1879 the wheat crop, the corn cropland the cotton crop were all 
the greatest ever known in our history up to that time. But in 
England and Europe the wheat crop was a failure on account of 
excessive rain and cold, and in India the cotton crop was a partial 
failure. We had then the. conditions which would naturally result 
in prosperity for agriculture and flourishing trade. In 1880 these 
conditions were repeated. All three of these crops in America ex- 
ceeded even the levels of 1879, and the foreign crops again ran 
short. There resulted, as everyone knows, a business develop- 
ment rapid beyond all parallels in our previous commercial history. 
But note the situation only two years later. The American wheat 
and cotton crops in 1882 exceeded even the record-breaking totals 
of 1880, and the corn crop was the largest, with one exception, 
in our history. But in that year the countries of Europe also pro- 
duced the greatest total wheat output in their history. The price 
of wheat in America accordingly fell, and the amount exported 
was strikingly diminished. The market for cotton also proved to 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS n 

be overstocked, and the price of cotton likewise underwent a seri- 
ous decline. There was no new development of business, no great 
revival of prosperity after the harvests of 1882. Although the 
crops of wheat and cotton were the most abundant that America 
had ever known, the following year was one of " steadily increas- 
ing depression." So also two years later, in 1884, the American 
wheat and corn crops once more bulked larger than ever. All 
previous records for their size were broken ; but here again the 
records of the rest of the world for output were also broken, and 
the price of wheat in consequence declined to the lowest level it 
had yet touched during the century, and the value of the total crop 
in the end proved less than it had been in any year since 1878. 
The agricultural output in America in 1884, as in 1882, would 
have led one to expect a fresh outburst of general activity, but the 
movement in the latter case as in the former was checked by the 
concurrent abundance abroad, and the year that followed in each 
case remained one of marked depression. 

2» In the second place, even where the country is blessed with 
the desired conjunction of domestic crop abundance and foreign 
crop failures, the revival of business activity may be prevented by 
the operation of other influences. 

In 1 89 1 the wheat crop failed everywhere in Europe, and this 
occurred on the top of two serious harvest shortages in 1889 and 
1890. At the same time the American crop proved larger than 
ever, — proved larger, in fact, by one hundred million bushels 
than the record crop before that date. The export of grain ran 
even beyond the enormous exports of 1879 an< ^ 1880, and reached 
in the ensuing year the highest level ever known before or since. 
The cotton fields also turned out by far the largest crop on record 
up to that time, and our exports of cotton exceeded all precedents. 
The corn crop was also abundant, being, with one exception, the 
largest ever harvested. And yet, with all these favoring condi- 
tions, with bumper crops in all lines in this country and scant 
crops abroad, with record-breaking shipments of wheat and cotton, 
with the heaviest export trade ever known in the history of our 
country, and the most favorable balance of trade in a decade, there 
was no extraordinary outburst of activity in general trade, no such 



12 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

expansion of business as had occurred a dozen years before under 
similar circumstances. No matter what we select as a gauge of 
prosperity, we find the same evidence of a relatively slack develop- 
ment in the early nineties, as compared with either the upward 
movement of the early eighties or that of a decade later. We may 
take the statistics of the per capita foreign trade, or the railway 
earnings per mile, or the bank clearings, or the stock exchange 
transactions, or the prices of commodities and securities, and we 
find them all telling the same story. The maximal records of the 
period all fell far short of those of the preceding or those of the 
succeeding cycle of trade. The continued agitation of the silver 
question and the dwindling reserves of the Treasury, presenting 
as they did an ominous outlook for our monetary standard, sufficed 
to prevent any considerable improvement in domestic trade and 
manufactures, such as otherwise would have resulted from the 
bountiful harvests and the immense export trade. American se- 
curities held abroad began to be returned in such quantities as to 
counteract what would naturally have been an enormously favor- 
able balance of indebtedness ; and American investors themselves 
hesitated from risking capital so long as Congress could not be 
depended upon to maintain the value of the country's money. 
There was no season of buoyant activity in 1891 and 1892. Trade 
continued sluggish. Congress had cast a deadening blight over 
business which even the plenteous bounty of nature was unable 
to overcome. 

3. A third fact is to be noted in discussing the relations of 
the crops to economic cycles in a country which, like the United 
States, ranges over a very extensive and diversified territory, 
and produces in different regions several very different crops. 
These various crops — belonging, as they do, to different lati- 
tudes and soils, subject to very unlike conditions of weather and 
temperature — are by no means bound to stand or fall together. 
An unusually small harvest in one line may be concurrent with 
unprecedented abundance in another. The failure of one crop 
may exert a depressing influence in one part of the country, and 
yet be more than compensated as regards the country as a whole 
by expanding production and flourishing activity in another. 



^HE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 13 

The three most important American crops are, respectively, 
corn, cotton, and wheat. Corn, although it is grown in greater 
or less quantities throughout the country, wherever there is 
tillable land, and although there are few places where it is grown 
exclusively, is of preponderating importance in the •' corn belt." 
This belt includes the northern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois, the whole of Iowa, and portions of Missouri, Kansas, 
and Nebraska. Cotton, our next most important crop, is much 
more rigidly restricted. It is produced exclusively in a compact 
strip of country, running along the Gulf States from eastern 
Texas, including the Carolinas on the east and parts of Arkansas 
and western Tennessee on the north. Wheat, like corn, is raised 
to some extent in all or most of the states (twenty-five raising 
winter wheat, nineteen spring wheat, and some both), but in this 
case also there is a distinct and comparatively limited area known 
as the " wheat region " in the north central river basin, and more 
than half of the wheat raised in the country comes from the six 
contiguous states, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Missouri, the' first three growing spring wheat, 
the latter three winter wheat. 1 

Among these three crops may occur every conceivable combi- 
nation of success and failure. The crops of the Southern States 
may be abundant when those of the Middle West are poor, which, 
for instance, was the case in 1894, when the cotton yield was 
enormous and the production of wheat and corn fell short of 
earlier levels. In 1895, on the other hand, the contrary situation 
occurred, and we had a very short cotton crop concurring with a 
record-breaking output of corn. Although the wheat and corn 
crops belong to somewhat the same regions, they may, neverthe- 
less, vary diametrically from each other. You may find a small 
wheat crop, as in 1885, or in 1896, combined in each case with a 
record-breaking corn crop, or vice versa a record-breaking wheat 
crop, as in 1901, contemporaneous with a failure of the corn crop. 

And so, while one might presume, from the wide prevalence 
of agriculture in America and its many interrelations with trans- 
portation interests, foreign trade, banking, and other occupations, 

1 See the maps in the Statistical Atlas, 1900, plates 154, 156, 158. 



14 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS , 

that the general condition of business would follow rather closely 
the changes in the country's crops, one can see that such a 
generalization is only safe when rigidly qualified and carefully 
applied. One must bear in mind not only that the condition of 
the crops elsewhere will always affect the value of our domestic 
crops, whatever may have been their size, but also that other 
conditions, such as changes in financial legislation, passed or 
impending, may outweigh all of the influences of agriculture upon 
business ; and, finally, one must remember that in a country as 
extensive as ours the effect of success or failure with any one kind 
of crop may always be largely offset by an opposite condition with 
some of the other crops. 

Ill 

Confronted with the evidence that our several crops do not 
always succeed or fail in the same seasons, one naturally asks 
which of the crops it is whose success or failure exerts the greater 
influence over the conditions of general business. This is a 
question the solution of which is. so difficult and involves the 
disentanglement of so many interacting factors that no one is 
competent to offer for it anything more decisive than a personal 
belief, and the best we can do here is to recall some of the points 
of view, most of them already mentioned, which must form the 
basis of that belief. 

At first glance one might suppose that the crop which is most 
extensive, or at any rate which is most valuable, would be the one 
which is most influential for general business. And that would be 
the corn crop. Of all the industries prosecuted in this country 
the most considerable by far, measured by the value of its output, 
is corn-growing. Corn is our leading product, not only when we 
are speaking of agriculture, but also when we include every kind 
of production. Our leading crops in the year 1905, according to 
the estimates of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1 ranked as follows : 

1 The estimates are those made at the end of the year in question. These 
estimates are always changed more or less before the annual volume is published, 
and at times even subsequent to its issue. They are at best, as are all of the 
figures in this paper, only estimates, derived from multifarious sources, and liable 
to large errors. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 15 

Corn .... $1,216,000,000 Oats $282,000,000 

Milk and butter 665,000,000 Potatoes 138,000,000 

Hay .... 605,000,000 Barley 58,000,000 

Cotton . . . 575,000,000 Tobacco 52,000,000 

Wheat . . . 525,000,000 Sugar cane and sugar beets 50.000,000 

Eggs .... 520,000,000 Rice 14,000,000 

With these may be compared the following estimates of the value 
of the output in other leading industries during the same year or 
during the latest year for which figures are available : 

Pig iron $412,000,000 

Coal 439,000,000 

Gold 86,000,000 

Silver 36,000,000 

Railroad gross receipts 1,906,000,000 

Railroad net earnings 639,000,000 

The output of corn usually bulks three or four times that of 
wheat ; and, although the price per bushel is considerably less, 
the value of the corn crop not infrequently aggregates a sum more 
than twice that of wheat, more, too, than the total value of the 
crops of wheat and cotton combined. 1 The annual output of corn 

1 Estimated value of the leading American crops, from reports of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture (millions of dollars) : 



Year 


Corn * 


Wheat* 


Cotton 


Year 


Corn* 


Wheat* 


Cotton 


1880 . . . 


679 


474 


280 


1893 . . . 


59i 


213 


263 f 


1881 








759 


456 


259 


1894 . 






554 


225 


262 f 


1882 








783 


445 


309 


1895 . 






544 


237 


269 f 


1883 








658 


383 


250 


1896 . 






491 


310 


287 t 


1884 








640 


33° 


253 


1897 . 






501 


428 


294 t 


1885 








635 


275 


269 


1898 . 






552 


392 


260 f 


1886 








610 


3H 


257 


1899 . 






629 


319 


357 t 


1887 








616 


3io 


291 


1900 . 






75 1 


323 


469 f 


1888 








677 


3§5 


292 


1901 . 






921 


467 


414! 


1889 








597 


342 


308 


1902 . 






1017 


422 


453 t 


1890 








754 


334 


350 T 


1903 . 






952 


443 


587 


1891 








836 


513 


313 T 


1904 . 






1087 


510 


586 


1892 








642 


322 


268 f 


1905 . 






1116 


518 





* Farm value December i. 

t As reported by Henry G. Hester, secretary New Orleans Cotton Exchange. 



i6 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



is, therefore, quite naturally regarded by many as more conse- 
quential for trade than the output of our other crops. It repre- 
sents an annual income in recent years of more than a billion of 
dollars, so that even a small percentage of change in its dimen- 
sions means a considerable fluctuation in the income of the com- 
munity, and in the community's power to consume other goods. 
The following table shows the difference in the estimated value 
of the several crops from one year to another since 1 890 : 



Year 



Corn 



Wheat 



Cotton 



1890 . . . 

1891 . . . , 

1892 . . . , 

1893 . . . 

1894 . . . . 

1895 • • • 

1896 . . . . 

1897 • • . 

1898 . . . 

1899 . . . 

1900 . . . 

1901 ... 

1902 ... 

1903 . . . 

1904 . . . 

1905 • • • 
Total 
Average 



+ i57 : 
+ 82 

- 194 

- 5i 

-37 

— 10 

-53 
+ 10 

+ 5i 

+ 77 

4- 122 

+ 170 
+ 96 
-65 

+ 135 
+ 29 



-8 1 

+ i79 

- 191 

— 109 
+ 12 
+ 12 

+ 73 
+ 118 

-36 

-73 

+ 4 

+ 144 

-45 

+ 21 

+ 57 



+ 42 1 

-37 

-45 

-5 

— 1 

+ 7 
+ 18 

+ 7 

-34 

+ 97 

4- 112 

-55 

+ 39 

+ 134 

— 1 



J339 
83 



1090 
68 



634 

42 



It will be seen that the variations in the value of the corn crop 
during these fifteen years have reached an average of $83,000,000, 
those of wheat an average of $68,000,000, those of cotton an 
average of $42,000,000. The variations in the value of the corn 
product as estimated have not, to be sure, exceeded the variations 
in the value of the wheat product by as large an average as might 
have been expected. Yet they have been, on the whole, more ex- 
tensive, and, were no other conditions than variations in crop 
value and their effects upon consumption to be taken into account, 
the outturn of the cornfields would be rightly regarded as of 



1 Millions of dollars. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 



7 



greater significance for general business than that of any of our 
other crops, and ought naturally to be looked to as the source of 
more considerable trade fluctuations. 

From certain points of view, however, the crop which is most 
largely exported might be expected to affect trade conditions the 
most seriously in that its fluctuations may induce changes in the 
balance of trade, in the international movement of gold, and in 
the bank reserves. A falling off in such a crop might rapidly re : 
verse our trade balance, causing gold exports and a reduction in 
the cash holdings of our financial centers, and so might produce a 
serious stringency in the money market, while the success of such a 
crop, on the other hand, would not improbably result in an inflow 
of gold, the swelling of the bank reserves, and so might stimulate 
a spirit of confidence and introduce a period of buoyant expansion. 

Ranked from this point of view, the cotton crop would at first 
glance appear the most important ; for, if corn is our leading 
product, cotton is our leading export. 





Year end- 


Total Exports 


Exports 


Exports of 


Exports of 


Exports 


Exports of 


ing 


of Domestic 


of Raw- 


Wheat and 


Corn and 


of Live 


Meat and 


June 30 


Produce 


Cotton 


Wheat Flour 


Corn Meal 


Stock 


Dairy Products 


1890 


845 1 


250 1 


102 1 


43 l 






1891 


872 


290 


106 


18 


32 1 


1 39 1 


1892" 


IOI5 


258 


236 


42 


36 


141 


1893 


831 


188 


169 


25 


27 


J 39 


1894 


869 


210 


128 


30 


35 


146 


1895 


793 


204 


95 


15 


35 


J 35 


1896 


863 


190 


9 1 


38 


41 


x 33 


1897 


1032 


230 


115 


54 


43 


138 


1898 


1210 


230 


214 


75 


46 


167 


1899 


1203 


209 


177 


70 


37 


i75 


1900 


1370 


24I 


140 


87 


43 


184 


1901 


1460 


3 r 3 


166 


84 


52 


196 


1902 


1355 


290 


178 


17 


44 


199 


1903 


1392 


3i6 


161 


4i 


34 


179 


1904 


M35 


370 


104 


3i 


47 


176 


1905 


1491 


379 


44 


48 


46 


169 





The value of our cotton exports far exceeds the value of the 
exports of any other article. In recent years our cotton exports 

1 Millions of dollars. 



18 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



have attained proportions averaging more than a million dollars 
per day, which is two or three times the value of the wheat 
exported, and all the way from three to eighteen times the value 
of the corn exported. In fact, they constitute on the average a 
fourth or a fifth of the country's total exports of domestic mer- 
chandise. The exports of raw cotton during the past decade have 
reached an annual average value of $260,000,000, not to men- 
tion an export of manufactured cotton averaging $22,000,000, 
while the wheat exports, both in the form of grain and of flour, 
have only reached an average of $138,000,000, and the corn ex- 
ports only $51,000,000 per year. In general, we export about two 
thirds of our cotton products, between 30 and 40 per cent of our 
wheat, but only 3 or 4 per cent of our corn. 1 Of course, it will be 
remembered that we export a large quantity of our corn product 
indirectly in the form of corn-fed cattle and meat products. Of 
this amount we have no means of estimation, not being able to 
separate the stock fed upon corn from that grown upon other 
fodder. Of live stock we have exported during the past ten 
years an annual average value of $43,000,000, including cattle, 
hogs, horses, mules, and sheep ; and of meat, including pork, beef, 
and mutton, and of dairy products, we have exported an annual 



1 Per cent of 


product exported : 












Year* 


Cotton 


Wheat and 


Corn and 


Year* 


Cotton 


Wheat and 


Corn and 






Wheat Flour 


Corn Meal 






Wheat Flour 


Corn Meal 




Per cent 


Per cent 


Per ce7it 




Per cent 


Per ce?it 


Per cent 


1880 


68.47 


37.38 


5.46 


1893 


71.20 


41.47 


4.11 


1881 


67.23 


31.82 


371 


1894 


69.83 


31.46 


2.36 


1882 


67.20 


29-33 


2.58 


1895 


65.00 


27.07 


4.70 


1883 


67.56 


26.49 


2.99 


1896 


70.59 


33-93 • 


7.83 


1884 


68.96 


25.86 


2.95 


1897 


67.82 


40.91 


II. 14 


1885 


64.68 


26.48 


3-35 


1898 


65.12 


32.97 


9.21 


1886 


68.71 


33-66 


2.48 


1899 


65.18 


34.00 


10.30 


1887 


65.83 


26.23 


1.74 


1900 


62.87 


41.36 


8.62 


1888 


69-33 


21.31 


3-57 


1901 


64.47 


31-37 


I.84 


1889 


68.15 


22.31 


4.85 


1902 


65.01 


30.28 


3-°4 


1890 


67.36 


26.60 


2.15 


1903 


60.27 


18.92 


2.59 


1891 


65-I3 


36.88 


3-72 


1904 


61.55 


7-99 


3.66 


1892 


65.99 


37.20 


2.89 











* The figures are for the years beginning July i in the case of wheat and corn and for 
the years beginning September i in the case of cotton. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 19 

average of $171,000,000. Could we estimate the amount of 
corn which is exported in this form we should doubtless 'find corn 
occupying a much more important position in the export trade 
than is indicated by the statistics just given of direct corn exports, 
yet obviously a change in the size of the corn crop exerts no im- 
mediate effect upon these indirect exports, and is only registered 
in the commerce of subsequent years. 

Cotton, then, plays the predominant role in our export trade, 
and one might readily conclude that the outturn of the cotton 
crop is of greater and more immediate significance for our foreign 
balance than the outturn of any other crop. An examination, 
however, of the trade statistics for the past fifteen years, which 
were just cited, reveals grounds for a different conclusion. The 
value of our cotton exports, enormous as the aggregate has been, 
has not varied from year to year as widely as the value of our ex- 
ports of wheat, and not in fact so very much more widely than 
our comparatively small exports of corn. During this decade and 
a half the widest fluctuations in the cotton exports occurred be- 
tween the years 1892 and 1893 and again between the years 1900 
and 1 90 1, when the variations amounted to $70,000,000 and 
$72,000,000 respectively ; yet twice during this same period the 
variations in the wheat exports exceeded these figures very strik- 
ingly between 1897 and 1898, when the wheat exports increased 
by $99,000,000, and between 1891 and 1892, when our wheat 
exports advanced by the amazing sum of $130,000,000. Not- 
withstanding, too, the minor proportions of our corn exports, 
their amounts have fluctuated from one year to another almost as 
widely as those of cotton. The failure of the crop in 1901, for 
instance, diminished the exports of corn and of corn meal by no 
less than $67,000,000 ; and, if we turn to the indirect effects 
visible a year or so later in the exports of meat and cattle, we find 
that the exports of live stock, for instance, declined by 1903 some 
$18,000,000 below the level of 1901, and the exports of meat and 
dairy products fell off some $17,000,000 during these two years. 
Even in the case of corn, therefore, the ultimate effects upon the 
export balance of a change in the size of the crop might be shown 
to be more severe than in the case of cotton. 



20 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The striking preponderance of cotton over all other products 
in our export trade, therefore, does not prove that the amount of 
our annual yield of cotton is the determining factor in our trade 
balance. Whatever the vicissitudes of the crop, the value of our 
cotton exports remains less liable to violent fluctuations than the 
value of our less extensive wheat exports. The reason is that the 
price of cotton adjusts itself more closely to the size of the Amer- 
ican crop than does the price of wheat, and this gives greater 
constancy both to the value of the crop as a whole and to the 
value of the exports. American conditions do not necessarily 
control the price of wheat ; for, although the United States pro- 
duces more wheat than any other single nation in the world, it 
produces less than a quarter of the world's total supply. On the 
other hand, this country is the source of nearly three quarters of 
the world's cotton, and what the world pays for that article is vir- 
tually determined by the mutations of the American crop. When 
the American crops are extraordinarily abundant, the world price 
of cotton tends to decline, and so the aggregate values of our 
cotton crop and of our cotton exports seldom increase proportion- 
ally to the increase in the quantity produced and exported. In 
fact, the greater bulk is sometimes more than offset by the lower 
price, and we may have such a situation as occurred in the years 
1898 and 1899, when the crop broke all known records of output, 
with one exception, and yet the total value of the crop was the 
lowest recorded during the past eighteen years. The value of the 
exports, too, of that superabundant year had been exceeded many 
times before, and have been invariably surpassed in the subse- 
quent years, although their amount was, with a single exception, 
the greatest ever known. Conversely, a diminution in the amount 
exported, because of a comparative failure of the American crops, 
does not necessarily involve a serious reduction in the total value 
of the exports. The crop of the season 1903- 1904 was a com- 
parative failure, being the smallest, with one exception, in seven 
years, yet its estimated value was more than double that of the 
record-breaking year 1 898-1 899, and exceeded that of any other 
year by more than $100,000,000. The exports of cotton in this 
same year of so-called crop failure, though the smallest in bulk, 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 21 

with one exception, during a decade, outdistanced the best of 
records in value by nearly $60,000,000. The vicissitudes of 
the cotton crop are, therefore, not so vitally significant for our 
foreign trade as one might suppose from a superficial considera- 
tion of the relative amounts exported of the various crops. Any 
increase or decrease in the bulk of the American cotton crop is 
more than likely to be compensated for by a converse movement 
in the price of cotton, and changes in the amount exported are 
apt to be offset by opposite changes in value. This is much less 
certain to occur in the case of wheat, because of the wider area 
in the world over which it can be produced, and the relatively 
smaller contribution which America makes to the total supply, 
which in the end determines its price. On the whole, then, we 
may tentatively conclude that the success or failure of the wheat 
harvest, more than that of any other vegetable product, is produc- 
tive of sudden and important changes in the balance of trade. 

But another consideration which we saw to be influential was 
the extent to which the crop is transported. Very little of our 
enormous corn supply is carried far from the locality of its pro- 
duction. Most of it is fed to live stock, especially hogs and cattle, 
which are raised in the region where it is produced, the principal 
meat-producing states being those of the corn belt. Of course, a 
failure of the corn crop will tend eventually (in the course, per- 
haps, of a year or so) to reduce the shipments of cattle and meat 
to the seaboard and to places of consumption, but fluctuations in 
the corn crop have but little direct and immediate effect upon the 
amount of freight carried. As for cotton, domestic means of trans- 
port are only slightly affected by the size of the crop, two thirds 
of which goes abroad, the greater part directly from Southern 
ports at Galveston, New Orleans, and Savannah, and principally 
in foreign vessels. The wheat crop, on the other hand, is much 
more closely connected with our transportation interests, for the 
wheat of the Middle West is carried far and wide by rail and 
steamship to all ends of the country. Not only the third of our 
total product which is destined for export, but a great part of the 
grain or flour destined for domestic consumption as well, has to 
be shipped over considerable distances. An abundance or shortage 



22 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of the wheat crop, therefore, makes at once a serious difference 
in the amount of railway traffic, and is at once registered in the 
railway earnings. One can see, then, how indirectly a wide devi- 
ation in the wheat crop, by giving a new turn to railway earn- 
ings, may affect railway construction and expenditures for railway 
maintenance, and so in turn may even cause some reverberations 
in the iron industry. As the wheat crop appeared of primary 
significance for our foreign trade and the bank reserves of our 
financial centers, so it takes first rank also from the point of 
view of our railway and shipping interests. 

Again, we observed that the success or failure of the harvests 
would affect those occupations in which agricultural products en- 
tered as a raw material. As for cotton, manufacturing interests 
will be directly touched by variations in the cotton crop, not only 
in the cotton mills of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but also 
in the rapidly multiplying mills of Georgia and the other Southern 
States. Changes in the corn supply will directly affect cattle- 
raising, and indirectly will affect the packing interests and the dis- 
tillers. Changes in the wheat supply will have their direct effect 
in the centers of the milling industry. The output of each of the 
crops is thus of great consequence to the business interests of a 
particular locality ; but it would be extremely difficult, looking at 
the country as a whole, to estimate the comparative influence of 
the several crops in this connection. Only a third of the cotton 
remains for manufacture within the country, while more than two 
thirds of the wheat and over nineteen twentieths of the corn re- 
main ; but, on the other hand, cotton passes through many more 
processes in the course of its manufacture, and occasions employ- 
ment for much more labor and capital for a given amount, than 
either of the other products. And, similarly, a somewhat greater 
proportion of the wheat than of the corn passes through a factory 
or mill, and gives further employment to labor. It appears fatu- 
ous, therefore, to attempt to decide which of these crops is con- 
nected the most importantly with other industries as a source of 
raw material. 

Looking at the question broadly and from all points of view, 
although the matter is not one upon which a decisive judgment 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 23 

can be rendered, it would appear that in the past variations in the 
wheat crop have probably been the most significant for general 
business. That crop has often been worth less than half of the 
value of the corn crop, and changes in its amount have probably 
not affected the country's general income and consumption as 
much ; but it has been much more closely connected with the 
transportation interests of the country, and it has exerted a more 
variable and more immediate influence upon the general trade 
balance. The cotton crop has frequently been more valuable, and 
has entered in far greater proportions into our foreign trade ; but 
the cotton product does not affect American transportation inter- 
ests to a similar extent, and the value of our cotton exports has 
remained comparatively steady, whatever has been their amount. 
Of the several American crops, then, we may tentatively conclude 
that that of wheat is most closely related to business at large, and 
that the fluctuations in its output are the most widely felt. This 
by no means implies that the wheat crop has always been the 
dominant factor in determining the measure of prosperity in trade. 
Numerous other influences, as we have already seen, have played 
from time to time the leading role, and there have been occasional 
years, as in 1884-188 5, when a season of profound depression in 
business accompanied and followed a record-breaking output of 
wheat, or as in 1 900-1 901, when a period of great buoyancy and 
commercial advance ensued upon a deficient crop of wheat. The 
supposition which we have made with regard to wheat is only one 
of general tendency, liable, as is every influence in this world, to 
be overbalanced by counteracting factors. 

Granting that wheat has exceeded the other agricultural prod- 
ucts in the past as a trade-influencing factor, its continued su- 
premacy in the future is still open to question. Conditions are 
continually changing, and within the past two or three years there 
have not been lacking indications of the diminishing importance 
of the wheat crop as a factor in our trade balance. Our wheat 
exports declined so rapidly in 1904 and 1905 that for the time 
being we appeared no longer in the ranks of important wheat 
exporters. The total wheat exports during the fiscal year 1904- 
1905 were the smallest in our history since 1872. Whether this 



24 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

situation marks a permanent change or only a temporary divergence 
due to a succession of short crops, one cannot as yet determine. 
Certainly, crops which would have seemed very large ten years 
ago would to-day be insufficient to feed our people and leave a 
surplus. Many have, therefore, jumped to the conclusion that we 
shall never regain our place as a wheat-exporting nation, and that 
with the rapid increase of our population we shall produce little 
more grain than is necessary for home consumption. If this 
should prove to be the case, the influence of the wheat crop upon 
our foreign balance, upon gold exports, and upon bank reserves 
would evidently cease to play in the future the part it has played 
in the past. 

IV 

. . . During that period [1873 to the present] there have oc- 
curred, along with many minor fluctuations, two great movements 
of industrial and commercial advance, each of amazing propor- 
tions, and each initiated by a series of extraordinarily successful 
harvests in America which were coincident with extraordinarily 
poor harvests abroad. The first was the movement from 1879 to 
1882, when the country was rapidly lifted from a six-year slough 
of business depression to one of the most prosperous periods in 
its entire history. Of this movement and its causes, which are 
familiar facts of history, some mention has already been made. 
Its propelling force arose unquestionably from the coincidence of 
a series of crop failures abroad in 1879, 1880, and 188 1, — fail- 
ures for which in duration and extent, it is said, " there had been 
no parallel in four centuries," 1 — with two successive American 
harvests, in 1879 an d 1880, whose dimensions exceeded all prec- 
edents in all of the leading products. These conditions not only 
resulted in huge profits for American farmers and dealers in prod- 
uce : they stimulated the earnings of the railways ; they induced a 
favorable balance of trade and the influx of more than two hundred 
millions of gold during the three years from 1879 to 1881 ; and 
they instigated a spirit of confidence, an expansion of demand, 

1 D. A. Wells, Recent Economic Changes, p. 6. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 25 

and an activity of exchange which carried the records of American 
business of every sort far beyond the highest levels known before. 

The second great movement of advance is that which began in 
1897, and still continues to-day (1906) after nine fabulous years 
of prosperity and almost uninterrupted increase. This movement 
also originated in an extraordinarily remunerative harvest, and its 
unprecedented duration is doubtless in large measure due to the 
prolonged continuance of agricultural success. After four years 
of prolonged depression, during which any revival of business 
had been prevented by the threat of a revolutionary change in 
our standard currency, the way was cleared of this hindrance at 
last in the autumn of 1896 by the overwhelming defeat of the 
extremist program in the presidential election. To this defeat 
the agricultural situation of that autumn contributed, as everyone 
remembers, a decisive influence. The conjunction of a failure of 
the wheat crop in India with a shortage in Australia served to 
raise the price of American wheat from 53 cents per bushel in 
August to 94! cents at the time of the election in November, 
upsetting the arguments of those* who had advocated the unlim- 
ited coinage of silver as the only means of raising prices, and 
turning the electoral tide against them in several of the doubtful 
Middle Western states. The principal obstacle to recovery being 
thus removed, in the following year a strikingly favorable turn in 
agriculture gave the necessary fillip to trade and set the country 
once more on the highway of prosperity. 

Early in the summer of 1897 it became known that the crops 
were again a failure in India, Australia, and in the Argentine 
Republic. Russia had had a poor wheat crop in 1896, and seemed 
likely to have another in 1897. In France, on account of a scorch- 
ing drought, the harvest was very deficient. In Austria storms and 
floods had done great damage. In a word, for one reason or another, 
the season proved disastrous all over Europe, and the European 
wheat crop fell short of that of the previous year by some three 
hundred fifty million bushels, — a loss of about one third. The 
demand for American wheat in consequence assumed new dimen- 
sions, and the price in August ran considerably above a dollar 
per bushel, or more than twice the price prevailing at that season 



26 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a year before. The American crop, meanwhile, ran ahead of that 
of the previous year by 145,000,000 bushels, and proved, with one 
exception, the largest in our history. The farmers of the Middle 
West got two or three times as much per bushel as they had been 
receiving for several years ; and, as they disposed of their in- 
creased output at these much advanced prices, they were rapidly 
lifted from a condition of extreme depression to one of prosper- 
ous activity. They began to pay off their farm mortgages, and so 
set locked-up capital free ; and at the same time they greatly en- 
larged their purchases of goods. This in turn gave a stimulus to 
trade in the factory centers of the East, which were called upon to 
meet the new demand for manufactured goods. The same condi- 
tions added enormously to the tonnage and earnings of the West- 
ern railroads, opening up a new era of prosperity for them ; and, 
as the trade of transportations is one of great importance and of 
wide-spread ownership, the whole country reaped an advantage. 

The bearing of the crop situation of 1897 upon our foreign 
trade was no less important. Our exports of wheat and corn in- 
creased in the course of the year that followed by a valuation of 
over $120,000,000, and our relations with the international 
market were reversed. Instead of exporting gold, we imported 
$142,000,000. Through this movement not only was credit stim- 
ulated by the enlargement of the cash resources of the banks, 
but also by the new accessions to the government's gold reserve, 
which had been passing through the direst of vicissitudes during 
the years just preceding, and which now rose to the highest* 
figure ever reached in the country's history. Great agricultural 
windfalls had once more set the wheels of trade in motion and 
initiated a new period of prosperity. 

The prolonged continuance of this upward tide beyond the 
term of any previous period of prosperity in the past half century 
has amazed the world and aroused much speculation as to its 
cause. Some have attributed it to the wane of radicalism in 
politics and the growing conservatism of our legislatures in matters 
of currency and finance. Some have connected it with the in- 
creasing concentration of control in industry and transportation 
which has obliterated the wars between rival interests and the 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 27 

protracted discrepancies between supply and demand that formerly 
afflicted the country's business. Many have credited it to the in- 
creasing output of gold, which has almost doubled in the past ten 
years and more than trebled in the past twenty, and which has 
tended steadily to inflate bank reserves, prices, and profits. Others 
have attached great importance to the growing centralization of 
power among the New York banking interests, and the extension 
of their international affiliations, with the consequent increase in 
their ability to secure foreign assistance in times of impending 
trouble. Unquestionably, however, another factor not to be over- 
looked in explaining the longevity of the period is the persistent 
success of American agriculture during these recent years, — a 
success which, unlike that of previous periods, has for the time 
being depended neither upon the abundance of the American 
crops nor upon the failure of the crops abroad. There have been 
no serious crop failures in Europe since 1897, and upon several 
occasions since then one or another of the American crops has 
fallen short ; yet the prosperity hi American agriculture not only 
has remained unimpaired, but has actually advanced to ever higher 
and higher levels. With regard to two of the agricultural staples 
of the country, cotton and wheat, the demand throughout the 
world has from all appearances increased more rapidly during the 
past half-dozen years than the output, so that in several cases, 
even when the harvests have shown a decline in bulk, their aggre- 
gate value has expanded. 1 Whether the increasing demand is the 
consequence of general prosperity or not is a matter of question, 
but certain it is that the world's consumption of these staples for 
some reason or other has taken on new dimensions, and, notwith- 
standing an increasing output, less has been produced than could 
have been sold with a profit. The prices of cotton and wheat 
during recent years have risen in consequence to levels not wit- 
nessed before for a generation, and one has to turn back to the 
year 1883 to find their prices averaging as high as during the 
past two years, 1904 and 1905. In fact, both the cotton and 
the wheat crops of the last three or four years have aggregated 
a value not far from double those of similar years a decade ago. 

1 See charts. 



28 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The agricultural situation of to-day is novel in many respects. 
In previous trade cycles of the past forty years, agricultural con- 
ditions in the West and the South have often tended to act as 



600 



550 



1880 



1885 



1895 



1900 



1905 



500 



450 



400 



350 



300 



250 











• 


COTTON PRODUCTION 

Pounds^^ (0,000,000 omittec 
Dollars ( 000.000 omitted 


1 




' — """""^i 


(For the year in 
was r 


which the crop 
used.) 




I 1 


1 
/ 








/ / 


\ / 








/ » 




\ I A .\ / 


—^^ / 


\ 


t 




\ / ' \ \ / 
\§i ' ' * 


^/' 







800 



700 



600 



500 



400 



300 



200 



1880 



1885 



1890 



1895 



1900 



1905 











[\ 


WHEAT PRODUCTION 

Production in Bushels—— 
Production in Dollars 






N 






/ 1 \ 




1 * 


V r\/\ 




/ * • \ 

/ ' ' \ A 
1 ' ' \ / 

I \ \ / 


™ i\ 


1 

1 \^' 


\ ^ 


/ 


! 1 


1 \ 


1 

1 








1 





drags upon the resources of the industrial and commercial centers 
of the East. The farming population was poor and heavily 
mortgaged. They had to work very largely on credit, and to wait 
until the harvest before making the current year's expenditures. 
They had not means sufficient to harvest their own crops, much 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 29 

less to carry over stocks from the superabundant years to meet an 
anticipated shortage. Under such circumstance any considerable 
diminution in the crops was very apt to cause serious reaction or 
to prolong an existing depression. But during these late years 
the great farming areas, whether of the West or South, have be- 
come financially independent and prosperous as never before. 
Their people have lifted many of their mortgages, and now are 
lenders where before they were borrowers. They are much better 
able to cope with any temporary shrinkage in their harvests or to 
take care of any temporary surplus. As a matter of fact, the 
agricultural situation to-day, instead of being an aggravating in- 
fluence in a general decline, as was the case ten or twelve years 
ago, has become the bulwark upon which the mercantile and 
financial interests of the country rely to break the force of every 
threatened reaction. 

We have seen how all the great movements of business ex- 
pansion in America during recent times have been initiated by 
conditions of agricultural success. It has also been true that most 
of the turning-points in the other direction have been preceded by 
agricultural failure. The year 1872, which marked the beginning 
of the first long period of retrenchment during the years under 
consideration, was preceded in the autumn of 1871 by a serious 
shrinkage in the cotton crop and by an appreciable decline in the 
crops of corn and wheat. The year 1882, which marks the begin- 
ning of the next commercial decline, ensued upon a destructive 
drought that extended over most of the United States and caused 
a shrinkage in all of the staple crops. The crop failures of the 
autumn of 1881 cut down freight earnings the following year by 
some $45,000,000, reduced our export trade by $150,000,000, 
converted a favorable into an unfavorable trade balance, and re- 
sulted in the export of $32,000,000 of gold before the following 
June. They thus furnished the initiatory impulse for the long 
decline of the middle eighties. Turning to the early nineties, 
we have seen how in this complicated period the marvelously 
favorable crop conditions in 1891 had failed, because of political 
uncertainties, to stimulate a repetition of the prosperity of the 
resumption period. In the first months of 1892 they succeeded 



30 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

in swelling the tonnage of the railroads and the exports of do- 
mestic produce to tremendous volume, and so reanimated general 
business temporarily; but in the following autumn (1892) the 
crops shrank back to their former proportions. The harvests of 
wheat and corn and cotton all registered a decline ; and, with the 
impetus of agricultural success removed, the country's business 
entered rapidly upon the downward course which culminated in 
the memorable crisis of 1893. All three of these periods of revul- 
sion were preceded by, if not altogether caused by, crop shortage. 
Looking back over the sweep of economic events in the United 
States during the past four decades, while one must admit that 
the influence of the crops has not always been the predominant 
factor in business, one can readily perceive their usual and very 
extended significance. The relation between agricultural success 
or failure and the prosperity or decline of general business has 
not, to be sure, proved as close and inevitable as Jevons and 
certain other students of crises have been inclined to believe. 
Crises have not ensued invariably and immediately upon every 
crop failure, nor have eras of upbuilding followed with clocklike 
regularity after every 'bountiful harvest. Yet one cannot review 
the past forty years without observing that the beginnings of 
every movement toward business prosperity and the turning-points 
toward every business decline (movements which frequently, it 
will be remarked, have antedated the actual outbreak of crises by 
several years) were closely connected with the outturn of the 
crops. In other words, the presumptive relationship, for the ex- 
istence of which we found abundant reason earlier in the paper, 
we find to be a matter of experience and historical fact. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 31 
THE AMERICAN CROP FOR THIRTY-FIVE YEARS 



Year " j 



Cotton 



Wheat 



Corn 



1870 

187T 
1872 

1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 

1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 

1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 

1891 
1892 

1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 

1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 

J905 



Millions of bales 2 

4-35 



Millio?is of bushels 
235 



Millions of bushels 
IO94 



2.97 

2-93 
4.I7 

3-83 
4-63 

4-47 
4-77 
5-07 
5.76 
6.60 



230 
249 
286 
308 
292 
289 

3 6 4 
420 
448 
498 



991 
1092 
932 
850 
1321 
1283 
1342 
1388 

l 547 
1717 



5-45 
6.94 

5-71 
57o 
6.57 
6.50 
7.04 
6-93 
7-3* 
8.65 



383 
5°4 
421 
512 
357 
457 
45 6 
4i5 
490 

399 



1 194 
1617 
J55 1 
J 795 
1936 
1665 
1456 
1987 
2112 
1489 



9-°3 

6.70 

7-54 
9.90 

7-i5 
8.75 

11. 1 

11.27 

943 
10.38 



10.68 
10.72 
10.01 

13-55 



5*5 

396 
460 

467 
427 
53° 
675 

547 
522 



748 
670 
637 
55 2 
693 



2060 
1628 
1619 
1212 
2151 
2283 
1902 
1924 
2078 
2105 



1522 

2523 
2244 
2467 
2707 



1 The year quoted is the year in which the crop was raised ; for example, in the 
case of cotton, the year beginning September 1. 

2 The bales have tended to grow heavier, and have varied from 440 to 490 lb. 



THE INFLUENCE OF FARM MACHINERY ON 
PRODUCTION AND LABOR 

By H. W. Quaintance 

(From the Publications of the American Economic Association) 

PART I 

Historical Survey 



AS TO just when the modern machine methods came into 
ii general use authorities differ and will, doubtless, continue 
to differ. The census statistician for agriculture makes the state- 
ment that "the year 1850 practically marks the close of the 
period in which the only farm implements and machinery, other 
than the wagon, cart, and cotton gin, were those which, for want 
of a better designation, may be called implements of hand produc- 
tion." x This opinion is in substantial agreement with that of a 
recent German writer. 2 

The cotton gin was not invented until nearly twenty years after 
the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the wagons and 
carts of that time were crude affairs in comparison with those 
of the present day. 3 " The Massachusetts farmer who witnessed 
the Revolution plowed his land with the wooden bull-plow, sowed 
his grain broadcast, and, when it was ripe, cut it with a scythe, 

1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. xxix. 

2 Andererseits ist der landwirtschaftlichen Maschinenentwickelung vor dem 
neunzehnten Jahrhundert wenig Bedeutung beizumessen, da ihre praktische 
Anwendung mit ihr nicht Hand in Hand gegangen war. Daher kommt es auch, 
dass die Maschinen der vorigen Jahrhunderte alle mehr oder weniger unvoll- 
kommen blieben. Die Anwendung landwirtschaftlicher Maschinen erfolgte erst 
in grosseren Masstab um die vierziger Jahre dieses Jahrhunderts. — Bensing, 
" Einfluss der landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen," p. 16 

3 Mass. Agr. Report, 1853, p. 422. 

32 



FARM MACHINERY 33 

and thrashed it out on his barn floor with a flail." 1 The poor 
whites of Virginia, in 1790, lived in log huts "with the chinks 
stuffed with clay ; the walls had no plaster ; the windows had no 
glass ; the furniture was such as they had themselves made. Their 
grain was thrashed by driving horses over it in the open field. 
When they ground it they used a rude pestle and mortar, or, 
placed in the hollow of one stone, they beat it with another." 2 

In parts of Pennsylvania, in Delaware, the eastern shores of Maryland 
and Virginia, and, we believe, in Rhode Island grain was generally trodden out 
by oxen or horses as the more expeditious method [even later than the year 
1800]. Horses were preferred for this work. A crop of three thousand bushels 
could thus be threshed and secured ... in ten days. . . . The treading floors 
were from forty to one hundred and thirty feet, more commonly sixty to one 
hundred feet in diameter with a "path twelve to fourteen feet wide near the 
periphery upon which the grain was laid. The horses were led round at a slow 
trot in platoons equidistant from each other. . . . The floors were sometimes 
removed from field to field, but permanent floors made hard and smooth, and 
kept so by careful use, were preferred. They were commonly fenced round, 
sometimes with an outer and inner fence. 3 

Of the Georgia estates in 1790, it is said: Their " chief products 
were negroes, rice, and tobacco. . . . The staple was tobacco, and 
this was cultivated in the simplest manner with the rudest of tools. 
Agriculture as we now know it can scarcely be said to have existed. 
The plow was little used. The hoe was the implement of husbandry. 
Made at the plantation smithy, the blade was ill-formed and clumsy ; 
the handle was a sapling with the bark left on. . . . Few roads were 
ever marked by the tires of a four-wheeled wagon or a tumbrel. 
When the tobacco was ready for the inspector's mark, stout hogs- 
heads were procured, the leaves packed in, the heads fastened in, 
a shaft and a rude axle attached, and, one by one, they were 
rolled along the roads for miles to the tobacco-house nearest by." f 
Michaux, who made a journey through the United States in 1802 
for the express purpose of studying agricultural conditions, in 
speaking of North Carolina, says : 

1 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, p. 18. 

2 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 14. 

8 Eighth Census, Preliminary Report, p. 95. 

4 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. II, p. 4. " 



34 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Throughout the whole of the low country the agricultural labors are per- 
formed by negro slaves, and the major part of the planters employ them to 
drag the plow ; they conceive the land is better cultivated and calculate 
besides that in the course of a year a horse, for food and looking after, costs 
ten times more than a negro, the annual expense of which does not exceed 
fifteen dollars. 1 

Even so late as the year 1812, the French settlers in southern 
Illinois were using plows " made of wood with a small point of 
iron fastened upon the wood by strips of rawhide, the beam rest- 
ing upon an axle and small wooden wheels. They were drawn by 
oxen yoked by the horns by raw leather straps, a pole extending 
back from the yoke to the axle." Small plows for plowing between 
the rows of corn were not introduced until about the year 1815. 
" They used carts that had not a particle of iron about them." 2 

The Cary plow, which seems to have been a fair type of the 
plows used during later colonial times and until well into the 
nineteenth century had a " wrought-iron share, wooden landside 
and standard, and wooden moldboard plated over with sheet iron 
or tin and short upright handles." 3 The Old Colony plow, which 
was still in general use in the Eastern states in 1820, "had a. ten- 
foot beam and a four-foot landside," and it made the V furrows 
stand up like the ribs of a lean horse in the month of March." 4 

One plow, in particular, is deserving of notice. It is the plow 
which Daniel Webster, in the year 1836, designed and helped to 
make for the especial purpose of clearing up a certain field on his 
farm at Marshfield, Massachusetts. 5 It was designed to cut a fur- 
row from 12 to 14 inches deep and has been described as being 
"12 feet long from the bridle (i.e. clevis) to the tip of the handles ; 
the landside is 4 feet long ; the bar and share are forged together ; 
the moldboard is of wood with straps of iron ; breadth at heel of 
moldboard to landside, 1 8 inches ; the spread of the moldboard was 
27 inches ; the lower edge of the beam was 2 feet 4 inches above 
the sole ; width of share 15 inches." With oxen to draw the plow 

1 F. A. Michaux, Travels in America in 1802, p. 291. 

2 Mass. Agr. Report, 1873-1874, p. 18. 

3 Eighth Census, Agriculture, p. xviii; Mass. Agr. Report, 1853, p. 422. 

4 U. S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1899, P- 3 J 5- 

5 A picture of this plow is given in Roberts, Fertility of the Land, p. 49. 



FARM MACHINERY 35 

and several men to help him, Webster held the handles and 
cleared his stump patch. Speaking of his work with this plow, 
Webster is reported to have said : 

When I have hold of the handles of my big plow in such a field as this, with 
four yoke of oxen to pull it through and hear the roots crack and see the 
stumps all go under the furrow, out of sight, and observe the clean mellow 
surface of the plowed land, I feel more enthusiasm over my achievement than 
comes from my encounters in public life at Washington. 1 

Webster's plow, although no doubt somewhat exceptional by 
reason of its massiveness, as became the man, is, in fact, only an 
illustration of what was an everyday affair, for the blacksmith 
shops were the plow factories of that time, and farmers were 
accustomed to having their plows made to order. 

' It must not be supposed, however, that inventors of the regular 
type were unmindful of the needs of the farming class. The 
Napoleonic wars, in particular, stimulated the demand of Europe 
for American agricultural products, and our Patent Office records 
furnish ample evidence of the efforts of inventors to supply better 
means of cultivating and caring for such products. 2 Whitney's 
cotton gin, patented in 1794, was only one of many devices 
designed to promote the business of the farmer. At least two 
patents for grain-thrashing machines were issued as early as the 
year 1791. 3 A patent for a corn-planting machine was issued in 
1799 4 and another for a grain-cutting machine in 1803. 5 

But the only one of these early inventions, other than the cotton 
gin, which seems to have really foreshadowed its successor of the 
present day, was a cast-iron plow invented by Charles Newbold 
of Burlington County, New Jersey. Sometime between 1 790 and 
1 796, Newbold had a plow cast, under his direction, at the Han- 
over furnace, in Burlington County, New Jersey. The plow was 
cast all "in one peice," and on June 17, 1797, he was granted a 
patent for his invention. 6 He appears to have used this first plow 

1 N.Y. Agr. Report, 1867, p. 484. 

2 Eighth Census, Preliminary Report, p. 96. 3 Ibid. 

4 U. S. Agr. Report, 1870, p. 401. 

5 Eighth Census, Agriculture, p. xx. 

6 U. S. Agr. Report, 1870, p. 395 ; N.Y. Agr. Report, 1867, p. 448. 



36 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

on his own land with much success ; but, financially, his enter- 
prise was a failure. The farmers were opposed to " new-fangled 
notions " and contended that the use of cast iron " poisoned the 
land, injured its fertility, and promoted the growth of weeds." 
Finally the point of the plow was broken off. It was never repaired, 
and the plow is now in the Museum of the New York State 
Agricultural Society at Albany, New York. 1 Eventually, however, 
the prejudice against cast-iron plows was overcome. Better patterns 
were devised. They were adopted by the people, and so late as 
the year 1850, according to the census statistician for agriculture, 
"the old cast-iron plows were in general use. Grass was mowed 
with the scythe, and grain was cut with the sickle or cradle and 
thrashed with the flail." 2 

The prototype of the modern grain reaper had indeed appeared 
prior to 1850. 3 A similar statement might, doubtless, be made 
concerning certain other inventions for which patents had been 
issued ; but all of these, like the submarine boat and the flying 
machine of the present day, were in too imperfect a state, too 
complex, or too expensive to meet the demands of the time. 
Whitney's cotton gin and Newbold's cast-iron plow may there- 
fore be accepted as the only ones of the great inventions which, 
up to 1850, had become thoroughly incorporated into the agri- 
cultural industry of this country. 

Just how soon after 1850 the various other labor-saving ma- 
chines became essential factors in the business of farm work 
it would be impossible to tell. Reaping machines were fairly well 
developed ; but the complexity of the machines and the ignorance 
of the farmers were serious hindrances to their general use. 4 It 

1 N. Y. Agr. Report, 1867, pp.446, 448. - 

2 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. xxix. 

3 Obed Hussey's machine was patented in 1833 '■> C. W. McCormick's, in 1834 
(Eighth Census, Agriculture, p. xxi). 

4 I use for reaping only the scythe and cradle. . . . Perhaps a still greater 
benefit may be found in the substitution Of reaping machines, which, even now, 
are used by most of the good farmers of my neighborhood. But because of their 
great liability to get out of order, the difficulties of working them, and especially 
my own ignorance of machinery, I have feared to attempt the use of reaping 
machines. — Letter of Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia farmer, from Patent Office 
Reports, 1850-1851, p. 104 



FARM MACHINERY 37 

is only in very recent years that agricultural implement dealers 
have ventured to send out any reaping machine without sending 
also an expert operator to instruct the purchaser in its use. 1 

The two-horse corn cultivator began to come into use in 1861. 2 
There are evidences, too, that other farm machines were coming 
into use at that time. 3 But during the Civil War, from 1861 to 
1864, the minds of inventors as well as of the working classes 
were given to other matters. 4 

From 1866 onward, progress in the invention and use of agri- 
cultural machinery has been by more rapid strides, yet even so 
late as the year 1870 the editor of the "New American Farm 
Book " 5 questioned the advisability of using the large threshing 
machines because of the " great loss of grain and enormous waste 
of straw " which were apt to result, and cautioned his readers 
particularly against " employing itinerate threshers, who go about 
the country to do work." For the " moderate farmer " he advised 
the use of "a small single- or double-horse machine or hand 
thresher" as the more economical and as permitting the work to 
be done "in winter, where there is more leisure for it." 

To-day the American farmer who does not use a machine of 
some sort is indeed far behind the times. The farmers of the Far 
West have profited most of all. There, on the California and 
Oregon farms, may be found fifty- horse-power traction engines in 
operation, each one dragging " sixteen ten-inch plows, four six-foot 
harrows, and a press drill for planting seed wheat. In this way 
one such engine performs the triple work of plowing, harrowing, 
and planting, all in one operation. The saving of time is so great 
that one machine can plant with wheat, from fifty to seventy-five 
acres in a single day, mounting hilly and rough ground just as 
easily as when passing across dead levels." 

1 Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. XI, p. j8. 

2 Illinois Farmer, 1861, p. 178. 

3 Eighth Census, Preliminary Report, p. 99. 

4 The Patent Office records through the period of the Civil War show a 
marked decrease in the number of patents issued for agricultural implements and 
machines and a very great increase in the number of patents issued for firearms 
and other weapons of warfare. 

5 R. A. Allen, New American Farm Book (1870), p. 150. 



38 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

When the grain is ripe, a harvesting machine is, by the same 
means, pulled across the field. 

Its cutters are often twenty to twenty-six feet wide. . . . When the cutters 
have performed their work, automatic rakers gather in the grain stalks and 
carry them to rows of knives where they are at once headed. Then, in the 
same operation, the wheat is threshed out, cleaned and sacked, and behind 
the great combination harvester there is left a trail of sacked wheat ready for 
the market. Another traction engine with a train of a dozen cars follows in the 
wake of the thresher and harvester, gathering up the wheat and carting it to 
the granary. In this manner fully seventy acres and more of wheat land are 
harvested in one day. 1 

With the aid of these engines the work of "plowing, cultivating, 
seeding, and harvesting on farms of a thousand acres in extent " 
may be done by half a dozen men in " much less time than a 
whole army of employees could do the work on a farm of half the 
acreage." 2 For the profitable use of such vast machine power, 
large fields are a self-evident necessity. 

The farm machines in use in the Central States are less massive 
and of a more varied nature, and yet, in the rate of progress which 
they show, are no less wonderful than those above described. 
Instead of a hoe for covering seed corn dropped by hand, the 
farmer now uses a check-row planter drawn by horses and deposit- 
ing the seed at regular intervals so that the rows may be cultivated 
with equal facility either in the direction of the planting or across. 
As a means of cultivating the corn, hoes are now laid aside, and 
in their stead the farmer quite commonly uses a riding plow. 
Steam-power corn-huskers and corn-shellers are found. Instead 
of the old hand-method of shelling corn by scraping the ears 
against the handle of a frying pan or the blade of a shovel, by 
which means hardly six bushels could be shelled in a day, the 
farmer may now have his corn shelled at the rate of a bushel 
a minute, and the machine which does the work will also " carry 
off the cobs to a pile or into a wagon and deliver the corn 
into sacks." 3 

1 George E. Walsh, " Steam Power for Agricultural Purposes," Harper's Weekly, 
Vol. XLV, p. 567. 

2 CassieSs Magazine, Vol. XIX, p. 139, and Harper's Weekly, Vol. XLV, p. 567. 

3 U. S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1899, pp. 316-318, 332. 



FARM MACHINERY 39 

Mowing machines, horse hay-rakes, tedders, and stackers have 
revolutionized the work of making hay. It formerly required 
eleven hours of man-labor to cut and cure a ton of hay. Now the 
same work may be done in one hour and thirty-nine minutes ; while 
the cost for the required man-labor has been decreased from 83I 
to \6\ cents per ton. 1 Potato planters and diggers, feed choppers 
and grinders, manure spreaders, and ditch-digging machines are 
only a few of many labor-saving devices now common on the farms 
in the Central States. There is hardly a phase of farm work that 
has not been essentially changed by the introduction of some new 
implement or machine. 

Some idea of the great development which has taken place 
along these lines may be gained from a consideration of the value 
of the output of agricultural implements and machinery as reported 
to the Census Office. For purposes of comparative study, the 
figures must be taken subject to heavy allowances, because, as 
pointed out by Mr. George K. Holmes, 2 the prices of farm 
machinery have "declined to an enormous extent," and this, too, 
in spite of the fact that the later machines are more efficient, more 
durable, more readily operated, lighter, and stronger. 

The total value of agricultural implements and machines manu- 
factured during the several census years, as reported to the Census 
Office, is as follows : 3 



Total for United States 



1900 
1890 
1880 

1870 
i860 
1850 



$101,207,428 
81,271,651 
68,640,486 
42,653,500* 
20,831,904 
6,842,611 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1899, p. 332. 

2 Twelfth Census, Manufacturing, Vol. IV, p. 353. 

3 Ibid., p. 344. 

4 The amount as given in the Census Report has been reduced to a gold basis 
(see Tenth Census, Manufactures, p. 1). 



40 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



PART II 

Machinery and Production 



Concerning the Increase in Cultivated Area per Farm Worker and 

the Greater Effectiveness of Farm Workers when aided by the 

Use of Machinery, as shown by Reports of the Census Office 

The Census Office statistician for agriculture presents a table 
as follows : 1 



Items 



Number of males in agriculture . . 
Number of horses, mules, and asses . 
Acres of land in specified crops . . 
Average number of acres to one male 

worker 

Average number of acres to one horse 
Average number of horses to one 

male worker 



1900 



8,771,181 

20,099,826 

272,304,111 

31.O 
13-5 

2 -3 



1890 



7,787,539 

17,264,999 

214,523,412 

27-5 
12.4 



7,075,983 
12,170,296 
[64,830,442 



2 3-3 
i3-5 



Farther on, speaking with reference to this table, he says : 

The number of acres of leading crops per male worker steadily increased, 
while the number per working animal was substantially the same in 1 900 as in 
1 880. The increase in the productiveness of man's labor, therefore, is secured 
by the increased utilization of the power of the horse and mule in driving farm 
machinery. The figures of the table indicate two important changes in the 
twenty years. One of these appears in the increase in the number of horses to 
each male worker from 1.7 to 2.3, a gain of about 35 per cent ; the other is the 
increase in the number of acres cultivated to each male worker from 23.3 to 
31.0, or about 34 per cent. From these figures it appears that in the last 
twenty years, by the aid of machinery and the substitution of horse power for 
hand labor, the effectiveness of human labor on farms has been increased to 
the extent of about 33 per cent. 

The statement that there has been an increase in the number 
of horses and of acres cultivated, to each male worker, is mathe- 
matically correct enough, but it gives the impression that the 



1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. xxxi. 



FARM MACHINERY 



41 



farmers have both increased in members at the same rate as 
people engaged in other occicpations and have expanded their 
holdings, which is not at all true. It will be noted that the number 
of horses per acre of cultivated land was the same in 1900 as in 
1880. Horses and crop acreage have therefore increased at an 
equal rate. Either these have increased at an extraordinary rate 
or the third term (male workers) has increased at less than the 
normal rate. It will be shown farther on (pp. 58-60) that this 
latter hypothesis is the true one. The increased crop acreage 
per worker is, therefore, to be looked upon not so much as 
an expansion of farm holdings as a contraction in the number 
of workers. 

The average number of acres in all farm crops per farm 
worker (agricultural laborers, farmers, planters, and overseers) 
— male and female — as returned by the censuses of 1880, 1890, 
and 1900 was as follows : 





1900 


1890 


1880 


United States 1 . 

North Atlantic division 


27.O 
21.3 
13-3 

45-2 
16.5 
39-6 


2 5-9 
21.2 
14.2 

40.4 
15-9 

33-7 


21.8 

21.7 

13.8 

3 r -9 

14.2 

34-2 


South Atlantic division 











Presented from the basis of a common denominator, the data 
shown in the foregoing table appear as follows : 





Base 


1880 


1890 


1900 




21.8 

21.7 

13.8 

3 T -9 
14.2 

34-2 


IOO 
IOO 
IOO 
IOO 
IOO 
IOO 


H8.7 

97-7 
102.9 
126.6 
in. 9 

98.5 


123.8 
98.O 
98.6 
141.7 
1 1 6.7 
115.8 


North Atlantic division 

South Atlantic division 

North Central division 

South Central division 

Western division 



1 In the various tables presented in this essay the term " United States " is 
used to signify only the five principal geographical divisions taken collectively. 
Data from the Census Reports have been modified, when necessary, to make 
them conform to such restricted meaning. 



42 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Such calculatipns are good as indicating the greater crop area 
which the average person finds it profitable to tend when aided by 
machine power. One needs to be on guard, however, against 
taking them as indexes of the greater effectiveness of man- 
labor, due to the use of machinery ; for, obviously, they take no 
account of the character of the cultivation — whether intensive or 
extensive. Construed as indexes of effectiveness, these figures 
show that the effectiveness of the average worker in the North 
Central, South Central, and Western divisions has been much 
increased during the period from 1880 to 1900, while that of the 
average worker in the North Atlantic and South Atlantic divisions 
has actually become less. Such a conclusion would be clearly 
wrong. There is good reason for believing that the effectiveness 
of the average farm worker in each of these divisions, 1 and even 
in the New England States alone, 2 was, in all likelihood, very much 
greater in 1900 than in 1880. 

If we take the value of product per person engaged in agricul- 
ture as an index of effectiveness under the methods in use in 1880 
and in 1900, we shall find that the effectiveness of the average 
worker in the United States was greater, by nearly 60 per cent, 3 
in 1900 than in 1880. 

The census of 1870 did not report crop acreage at all, and the 
value of agricultural products was reported in connection with 
the value of betterments, so that no showing of the relative 
effectiveness of agricultural workers, in 1870 and in 1900, based 
either on crop acreage or on value of products, can be made ; but 
judged by the quantity of cereal product reported, per person 
engaged in farm work (i.e. farmers, planters, overseers, and agri- 
cultural laborers), the effectiveness of the average farm worker in 
1900 was greater than in 1870 by nearly 86 per cent. 4 The data 
at hand do not appear to admit of any similar showing as between 
the year 1900 and any date prior to 1870. 

1 See page 82. 2 See page 54. 

3 Exactly 58.4 per cent. For value of product per person engaged in agricul- 
ture in 1880 and 1900, see table on page 82. 

4 Exactly 85.8 per cent. The cereal product per worker, as above, in 1870, 
was 236.5 bushels ; in 1900 it was 439.6 bushels. 



FARM MACHINERY 43 

The Greater Effectiveness of Farm Workers when aided by the 
Use of Machinery, as shown by Investigations of the Department 

of Labor 

The Thirteenth Annual Report of the Department of Labor 
gives the results of an extended investigation concerning produc- 
tion by hand and by machine methods, and affords the means for 
a reliable estimate of the influence of machine power. That por- 
tion devoted to agricultural operations shows in detail, for example, 
how many persons were ordinarily required for the production, by 
hand or by machine methods, of a given quantity of barley ; what 
separate operations were necessary in that production, as plowing, 
sowing, harrowing, etc. ; what time was required for each opera- 
tion, what tools or machines, if any, or other helps were used, and 
the money cost of each operation. 

From the summary given on pages 24-25 of that report it 
appears that the man-labor power requisite for the production of 
thirty bushels of barley, by the methods commonly in use in the 
season of 18 29- 18 30, amounted to 63 hours and 35 minutes. 
The man-labor power required for accomplishing the same result, 
by the methods commonly in use in the season of 1 895-1 896, is 
shown to have been only 2 hours and 42.8 minutes. From such 
data, the barley crop of 1 896 being known, we may readily deter- 
mine not only what amount of man-labor was requisite for the 
production of that crop by the means commonly in use at that 
time, but also how much barley that same labor power could have 
produced by the means commonly in use in the season of 1829- 
1830. The difference between the quantity actually produced in 
the season of 189 5- 1896 and the quantity which the labor power 
required for the work of that season could have produced by the 
earlier hand methods will represent the greater product due to 
the use of machinery. The crediting of the whole of this differ- 
ence to the use of machinery is, doubtless, crediting it with too 
much. Credit is due, also, to better methods of cultivation, to 
pulverization of soils, to the use of fertilizers, to irrigation, rotation 
of crops, better seed, etc. These are not machine forces, although 
they are largely dependent upon the use of machinery, as the use 



44 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



of machinery is, in some degree, dependent upon them. But to 
attempt the separation of these credits would be much like attempt- 
ing to determine which blade of a pair of shears does the cutting. 
Moreover, these various other forces play, comparatively, a very 
incidental and subsidiary part. I believe that the following pages 
will justify this opinion, and venture, therefore, to disregard what- 
ever inaccuracy there may be involved in the statement and to say 
that the entire increased product is due to the use of machinery. 1 

It will be sufficient, for purposes of illustration, to consider only 
a few of the principal crops in the production of which machinery 
has become a recognized factor. The crops selected for this 
purpose, together with the time of man-labor requisite for pro- 
ducing stated quantities of each crop by hand and by machine 
methods, as reported by the Department of Labor, are shown 
in the following table : 



Unit 

Num- 



Name and Quantity of Crop Pro- 
duced and Description of Work 
Done 



Year of Production 



Hand 



Machine 



Time Worked 



Hand 



Machine 



J 3 
16 

i? 

18 

26 



Barley: 30 bushels (1 acre) 
barley 

Corn : 40 bushels (1 acre) yel- 
low corn, husked ; stalks 
left in field 

Cotton : by hand, 7 50 pounds ; 
by machine, 1000 pounds 
(1 acre) seed cotton . . . 

Hay: harvesting 1 ton (1 acre) 
timothy hay 

Oats: 40 bushels (1 acre) oats 

Potatoes : 220 bushels ( 1 acre) 
potatoes 

Rice: 2640 pounds (1 acre) 
rough rice 

Rye: 25 bushels (1 acre) rye 

Wheat: 20 bushels (1 acre) 
wheat 



1829-1830 



1855 



1841 

1850 
1830 

1866 

1870 
1847-1848 

1829-1830 



1895-1896 



1894 



1895 
1893 

1895 

1895 

1 894- 1 89 5 

1895-1896 



63 
38 

167 

21 
66 

108 

62 
62 

61 



Min. 



35-o 



45-o 



48.0 

5-o 
15.0 

55-o 

5-o 
58.9 

5-o 



Hr. 



Min. 
42.8 



42.O 

56.5 
5-8 



2-5 
I O.O 



1 For the purpose of this discussion I shall use the term "machinery," generally, 
to signify not only machines, but also tools or implements, and other man-labor- 
saving forces when used as essential adjuncts or parts of machines. For example, 



FARM MACHINERY 



45 



These several crops for the years covered by the data concern- 
ing production by the aid of machine power were as follows : T 



Crop of 



Amount Produced 



Barley . 

Corn . . 

Cotton . 

Hay . . 

Oats . . 
Potatoes 

Rice . . 

Rye . . 

Wheat . 



896 
894 
895 
895 
893 
895 
896 
895 



69,695,223 bushels 
1,212,770,052 bushels 

7,161,094 bales (500-pound) 
47,078,541 tons 
638,854,850 bushels 
297,237,370 bushels 
168,685,440 pounds 
27,210,070 bushels 
427,684,346 bushels 



The number of days' work of man-labor requisite for producing 
the foregoing specified crops by the aid of machine power, together 
with the quantity of those several crops which the same labor 
power could have produced by the earlier hand method, are shown 
in the following : 





Crop of 


Days' Work of 
Man-Labor 
Required 


The Same Labor Power 




By methods of 


Could have produced 


Barley 

Corn 

Cotton 

Hay 

Oats 

Potatoes 

Rice 

Rye 

Wheat 


1896 
1894 
1895 
1895 

1893 
1895 
1895 
1895 
1896 


630,354 
45,873,027 
28,178,904 
18,556,791 
11,334,266 
5,134,100 

108,889 

2,739> r 47 
7,099,560 


1829-1830 

1855 

1841 

1850 

1830 

1866 

1870 

1847-1848 

1829-1830 


2,972,839 bushels 

473,528,022 bushels 

2,518,972 bales 

8,801,640 tons 

68,433,307 bushels 

103,703,321 bushels 

46,303,587 pounds 

10,872,795 bushels 

23-5245,490 bushels 



Finding next the difference between the quantities of the sev- 
eral crops actually produced under machine methods, in the years 



horses, when used to draw a reaping machine, will be considered as much a part 
of the machine as an engine and boiler would be, if used for the same purpose. 

2 The " unit numbers " here given are the unit numbers made use of in the 
Thirteenth Annual Report of the Department of Labor, from which the data in the 
table are taken. The numbers are repeated here only for purposes of reference. 

1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1900. 



4 6 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



indicated, and the quantities which the labor power requisite for 
their production with the aid of machines could have produced 
had it been devoted to the production of those same crops by 
hand methods, we have the following : 



Barley . 
Corn 
Cotton . 
Hay . . 
Oats . . 
Potatoes 
Rice . . 
Rye . . 
Wheat . 



Crop of 



1894 
1895 
1895 

1893 
1895 

1895 
1895 



Due to Use of 

Machinery 



66,722,384 

739,242,030 

4,642,122 

38,276,901 

570,421,543 

i93> 534*049 

122,381,853 

16,337,275 

404,438,856 



bushels 

bushels 

bales 

tons 

bushels 

bushels 

pounds 

bushels 

bushels 



Per Cent of Actual 
Product 



957 
60.9 
64.8 
81.3 



65.1 

72.5 
60.0 

94-5 



The increased effectiveness of man-labor power when aided by 
the use of machinery, as indicated by these figures, varies from 
150 per cent in the case of rye to 2244 per cent in the case 
of barley. From this point of view a machine is " not a labor- 
saving " but rather a V product-making " device. 1 Taking the per 
cent of labor saved (see p. 52), as indicating the average pro- 
portion of these crops due to the use of machinery, it appears 
that the quantity of product is almost five times as great, per unit 
of labor, as it formerly was. 

The Cost of Production 

Touching the difference in the cost of production per unit of 
product, the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Department of 
Labor furnishes some data that will well repay a somewhat extended 
consideration. It should be observed, however, that these data 
with reference to the cost of production, although collected at 
the same time and, doubtless, with the same care as the data 
already taken from that report, are, nevertheless, for the purposes 
of generalization, far less reliable. The average workman will 
perform the same quantity of work in a day, whether he works in 



1 Hadley, Economics, p. 338. 



FARM MACHINERY 47 

one locality or in another ; but rates of wages vary with localities 
and may vary both absolutely and relatively with differences in 
time. With this qualification in mind, it will be safe to take 
up the consideration of the data. 

Including the crops above considered, the report of the Depart- 
ment of Labor gives detailed information concerning the cost of 
production, by hand and by machine methods, of twenty-one 
different crops. The table on the next page gives the results 
of the several investigations in this particular, arranged in the 
order of the greatest saving in cost of production by machine as 
compared with hand methods. 1 

The per cent column of this table shows that, for the most 
part, there has been a very great decrease in the cost of producing 
these various crops. The median is 39.92 per cent, but this 

1 In the production of peas and in both tobacco crops there has been an 
increase in the cost. This increase is not, however, from the use of machinery 
in the production of these crops, but rather from the lack of it. In the case 
of tobacco (unit 22), for example, in which there has been the greatest increase 
in cost, the hand-method production was with the aid of the following : wagon, 
spades, hoes, rakes, wooden-moldboard plows, harrow, turnplow, wooden pegs 
for setting plants, plow for cultivating, and tobacco knives. The total extent of 
the machinery used in the production of this crop by machine methods was 
as follows : plow, harrow, rakes, hoes, disk harrow, drag, wagon and barrels, 
transplanter, double-shovel plow, tobacco knives, wagon and racks, and screw 
racket prize (Thirteenth Annual Report, Dept. Labor, p. 464). It must be 
evident at once from a comparison of these items that the difference in ma- 
chinery cannot account for the difference in cost of production. The cause of 
the increased cost in the production of tobacco and peas (units 15, 22, and 23) 
was a higher rate of wages. In the case of peas, wages rose from 62^ cents to 
$1 per day. In the case of tobacco (unit 22), wages rose from 30 cents per day 
to $20 and $23 per month; in unit 23, the rise of wages was from 75 cents to 
$1 per day. It will be readily understood that when there is little or no change 
in the methods of production a rise in the rate of wages must cause a rise in the 
total cost of production. 

The " hand method " of production, as explained in the report of the depart- 
ment, " should not be construed to mean a method whereby a product is made 
entirely by the unaided hand and absolutely without the use of machines, but 
rather as the primitive method of production which was in vogue before the 
general use of automatic or power machines " (Thirteenth Annual Report, Dept. 
Labor, p. 11). Similarly, it should be observed in this connection that machine 
method does not necessarily imply that machines are used, but only that the work 
was done by the most approved methods practiced in more recent years. 

For a table of wages under hand and machine methods, see page 74. 



48 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



number is clearly too low, for the crops in which machinery is 
most used are principally in the upper part of the table. 

COST OF PRODUCTION BY HAND AND BY MACHINE METHOD 



Unit 




Year of Production 


Cost 




Num- 


Name and Quantity of 
Crop Produced 










Per Cent 
Decrease 


ber* 














Hand 


Machine 


Hand 


Machine 




3 


Barley: 30 bu. (1 acre) . . 


1829-1830 


1895-1896 


#3-88 


#1.06 


72.62 


27 


Wheat: 20 bu. (1 acre) . . 


1829-1830 


1895-1896 


4.00 


1. 12 


71.98 


5 


Broom corn : 1 ton (3 acres) 


i860 


1895 


9°-33 


25-37 


71.92 


17 


Rice : 2640 lb. (1 acre) . . 


1870 


1895 


7.20 


2.08 


71.09 


21 


Sweet potatoes : 105 bu. (1 














acre) 


1868 


1895 


34-3° 


10.29 


70.00 


12 


Hay : harvesting 1 ton (1 








acre) timothy hay .... 


1850 


1895 


1.92 


.63 


66.95 


8 


Corn: 40 bu. (1 acre) yel- 
low corn, shelled ; stalks, 
husks, and blades cut into 














fodder 


1855 
1855 


1894 
1895 


16.34 
40.32 


6.62 


59-49 

59.40 


20 


Sugarcane : 20 tons (1 acre) 


16.37 


13 


Oats: 40 bu. (1 acre) . . . 


1830 


1893 


3-85 


1.60 


58.47 


19 


Strawberries : 4000 qt. (1 














acre) 


1871-1872 
1870 


1894-1895 
1895 


231.28 
36.62 


97.92 
15.88 


57-66 
56.64 


24 


Tomatoes: 150 bu. (1 acre) 


16 


Potatoes : 220 bu. (1 acre) 


1866 


1895 


13.18 


5-97 


54.68 


26 


Wheat : 20 bu. (1 acre) . . 


1829-1830 


1895-1896 


3-8 3 


2.03 


47.11 


11 


Hay : harvesting and baling 














1 ton (1 acre) timothy hay 


i860 


1894 


3-i9 


1.91 


39-92 


2 


Apple trees : 10,000 (1 acre) 
thirty-two months, from 














grafts 


1870-1872 

1850 


1893-1895 
1895 


200.00 


121.00 


39-5o 
38.05 


4 


Beets: 300 bu. (1 acre) . . 


32-30 


20.01 


9 


Corn : 40 bu. (1 acre) yellow 
corn, husked ; stalks left 














in field 


1855 


1894 


5-03 


3-3i 


34.20 


7 


Carrots: 30 tons (1 acre) . . 


1850 


1895 


38.71 


37-21 


29.72 


14 


Onions : 250 bu. (1 acre) . . 

Apple trees : 10,000 (1 acre) 

thirty-two months, from 


1850 


1895 


32.56 


23.89 


26.64 




grafts 


1869-1871 


1893-1895 


202.00 


150.69 


25.41 


10 


Cotton f : by hand, 750 lb. ; 








by machine, 1000 lb. (1 














acre) 


1814 

1 847-1848 


1895 
1894-1895 


6.15 

5.25 


4.71 
4-3° 


23.42 


18 


Rye : 25 bu. (1 acre) .... 


18.10 


25 


Turnips: 350 bu. (1 acre) 


1855 


1895 


25.63 


23-36 


8.88 


6 


Carrots : 30 tons (1 acre) . . 


1855 


1895 


30.61 


29.96 


2.13 




Per Cent 














Increase 


15 


Peas: 20 bu. (1 acre) field 














peas 


1856 


1895 


6.66 


6.76 


1.56 


2 3 


Tobacco : 1500 lb. (1 acre) 






Spanish seed leaf .... 


1853 


1895 


25.85 


27.99 


8.28 


22 


Tobacco i : by hand, 1200 lb. ; 
by machine, 1250 lb. (1 














acre) . . . .• 


1844 


1895 


•74 


2.67 


261.42 







* See footnote 2, p. 45. 



FARM MACHINERY 



49 



The data requisite for a similar showing with respect to all farm 
crops and for any certain period are, I think, not to be had ; but 
we can apply the data presented in the foregoing table to the 
principal crops of the year 1899, as reported by the Twelfth 
Census. 1 The results are as follows : 



THE COST OF PRODUCING CERTAIN CROPS OF THE YEAR 1899, 
BY HAND AND BY MACHINE METHOD 



Name 2 


Quantity Produced 


Cost of Production 


Hand method 


Machine method 


Barley (3) 

Broom corn (5) 

Corn (9) 

Cotton (10) ....... 

Hay (12) 

Oats (13) 

Onions (14) 

Peas (15) 

Potatoes (16) 

Rice (17) 

Rye (18) 

Sugar cane (20) 

Sweet potatoes (21) . . . . 

Tobacco (22) 

Wheat (26) 


119,634,877 bushels 

90,947,370 pounds 

2,666,440,279 bushels 

9,534,707 bales 

84,011,299 tons 

943,389,375 bushels 

11,791,121 bushels 

9,440,269 bushels 

273,328,207 bushels 

283,722,627 pounds 

25,568,625 bushels 

6,441,578 tons 
42,526,696 bushels 
868,163,275 pounds 
658,534,252 bushels 


#15,472,777 

4,107,576 

335,304,865 

58,638,448 
161,301,694 

90,801,227 

1,535,675 
3,143,609 

16,373,935 

773,788 

5,369,411 

12,986,221 

41,676,162 

6,424,408 

126,109,309 


$4,227,098 

1,153,650 

220,647,933 

44,898,469 

52,927,118 

37,735,575 

1,126,759 

3,190,810 

7,417,133 

22 3,539 

4,397,803 

5,272,431 

4,167,616 

18,491,859 

66,841,226 


Total 




$880,019,105 


$472,719,019 



The estimated cost of producing these crops by machine method 
is only 53.7 per cent of the estimated cost of producing the same 
crops by hand method. In other words, the saving in cost of 



f The data have been modified to show a comparison on the basis of equal 
quantities produced. If the equal areas be taken instead, the line should read : 
Cotton : by hand, etc., $9.23 ; $9.42 ; 2.09. 

t The data have been modified to show a comparison on the basis of equal 
quantities produced. If the equal areas be taken instead, the line should read : 
Tobacco : by hand, etc., $8.88 ; $33.39 ; 276.33. 

1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. cxxi. 

2 The figures in parentheses are the unit numbers used by the Department of 
Labor and indicate what set of reports was used as the basis of the estimated 
cost of production as here presented. The dates of the investigations for hand 
and for machine methods may be found by reference to the preceding table. 



50 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

production amounts to 46.3 per cent. The average date of the 
hand-method investigations made use of in this presentation is 
1850; the average date for the machine-method investigations 
is 1895 — a difference of forty-five years. Surely it will not be 
too much to say that during the last half of the nineteenth century 
the cost of production of these crops was reduced by one half. If 
we take into account the decreased cost to the farmer of food and 
lodging for his hired workmen and of the decreased cost of storage 
room for grain in the straw, then the total saving must appear to 
be even greater than this. 1 

Fluctuations in Quantity of Product 

The use of machinery in the production of agricultural, products/ 
as in the production of manufactures, tends to diminish the" fluctua- 
tions in supply. Capital in any form cannot, ordinarily, be diverted 
from the production for which it was designed, without more or 
less waste. If, for example, a farmer wishes to change from pro- 
ducing wheat to producing potatoes, he must sell his reaper at a 
sacrifice. The difficulty in making such changes operates against 
great and sudden changes from one line of production to another, 
even when the prospects for profit in such other line may be 
unusually bright. Thus the supply of the more profitable product 

1 To ascertain the amount of saving precisely is difficult ; but looking through 
the successive stages of management and seeing that the owner of a stock farm 
in the preparation of his land by using lighter plows is able to cast off one horse 
in three ; and by adopting other simple tools to dispense altogether with the great 
part of his plowing ; that in the culture of crops by the various drills, horse- 
power can be partly reduced ; the seed otherwise wanted, partly saved ; and the 
use of manures greatly economized ; while the horse hoe replaces the hoe at one 
half the expense ; that at harvest the American reaper can effect nearly thirty 
men's work ; while the Scotch cart replaces the old English wagon with exactly 
half the horses ; that in preparing corn for food the steam threshing machine 
saves two thirds of our former expense ; and in preparing food for stock the 
turnip cutter, at an outlay of is., adds 8s. a head in one winter to the value of 
sheep ; lastly, that in the indispensable but costly operation of drainage, the 
materials have been reduced from 80s. to 15s'., to one fifth namely of their former 
cost ; it seems to be proved that the efforts of agricultural mechanists have been 
so far successful, as in all these main branches of farming labor taken together, 
to effect a saving on outgoings or else an increase of incomings of not less than 
one half. — Quoted from Pusey's report on Agricultural Implements in the 
Exhibit of 1851, by Hearn, " Plutology," p. 171 



FARM MACHINERY 51 

is restricted. On the other hand, farmers having their capital in 
the form of machinery devoted to the production of some partic- 
ular crop will continue to produce somewhat of that crop rather 
than to have their capital lie idle or to suffer a greater loss from 
an attempt to change. This influence operates towards maintaining 
the former supply. 

As a consequence of these two dissimilar forces, the supply of 
any product is more constant, and the resulting fluctuations in 
price less violent than they otherwise would be. 

The Quality of Agricultural Products 

The use of machinery is not without some influence on the 
quality of the product. Corn which, by reason of too early or too 
late planting, as was necessarily frequent under hand methods of 
production, does not mature properly is unwholesome ; and grain 
cut, as formerly, under hand methods, before it is thoroughly 
ripened, becomes shrunken and of less value. 

In the matter of preparing grain for use the advantages of 
machinery are equally evident. The present generation of Ameri- 
cans would be slow to eat bread made of flour from wheat threshed 
by the treading of horses or cattle. 

PART III 
Machinery and Labor 

Saving of Labor 

The quantity of labor which, by the use of machine power, is 
saved for other uses may be determined, in the case of any par- 
ticular crop, by finding the difference between the number of days' 
work requisite for producing it by hand and by machine methods. 
In the table on the next page there is shown the quantity of man- 
labor requisite for producing the nine principal farm crops by hand 
and by machine methods ; the quantity of labor saved in each case 
by the use of machinery ; and the per cent which the quantity of 
saved labor is of the quantity requisite for producing the several 
crops by hand method. 



52 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



DAYS' WORK NECESSARY TO PRODUCE 
A. By Hand Methods 



Barley . . 

Corn . . 

Cotton . , 

Hay . . , 

Oats . . 

Potatoes . 

Rice . . 

Rye . . , 

Wheat . . 
Total 



Crop of 



896 

894 
895 
895 

893 
895 
896 

895 
896 



Methods of 



1829-1830 

1855 

1841 

1850 

1830 

1866 

1870 

1847-1848 

1829-1830 



Days' Work 



I 4»77i.5 I 5 

117,487,098 

80,108,771 

99>257>257 

105,810,334 

14,715,501 

396,687 

6,854,942 

130,621,927 



570,024,032 



B. By Machine Methods 





Crop of 


Methods of 


Days' Work 


Days' Work 

Saved by 
Machinery 


Per Cent 


Barley 
Corn . 
Cotton 
Hay . 
Oats . 
Potatoes 
Rice 
Rye 
Wheat 












1896 
1894 
1895 
1895 
1893 
1895 
1896 
1895 
1896 


1895-1896 

1894 

1895 

1895 

1893 

1895 

1896 

1894-1895 

1895-1896 


630,354 
45,873,027 
28,178,904 
18,556,791 
11,334,266 
5,134,100 

108,889 

2,739^47 
7,099,560 


14,141,161 
71,614,071 
51,929,867 
80,700,466 
94,476,068 
9,581,401 
287,796 

4,115.795 
123,522,367 


95-7 
60.9 

64.8 

81.3 

89.2 

65.1 

72-5. 

60.0 
94-5 


Total 














II9»6SS»03 8 


450,368,992 


79.0 



The total amount of man-labor power saved by the use of machin- 
ery in the production of these nine crops was 450,368,992 days' 
work or 79 per cent of the amount of work which would have 
been required to produce those same crops by the earlier hand meth- 
ods. In other words, the quantity of labor now requisite for the pro- 
duction of a given quantity of these nine crops is, on the average, 
only 21 per cent, or a little over one fifth of the quantity which 
would be requisite under the former hand methods of production. 1 



1 See also Edward Atkinson, Distribution of Products, pp. 14-15, 287. 



FARM MACHINERY 53 

Displacement of Labor 

The question of the displacement of labor is one of peculiar in- 
terest to those who work for hire, because upon it seems to depend 
the further question of whether the use of machinery decreases 
the opportunities for earning a livelihood. That the introduction 
of machinery does frequently deprive workmen of employment in 
particular lines of work is undeniably true. The introduction of a 
harvesting machine throws cradlers and binders out of employment 
just as certainly as the introduction of water drives air out of a jug. 
It is idle to say that machinery does not displace individual work- 
men and equally idle to contend that such displacement does not 
entail hardship and suffering, for the more thoroughly and com- 
pletely one devotes himself to any particular line of work, the less 
fitted does he become for taking up, and gaining a livelihood in, 
some other occupation. The extent of change which the introduc- 
tion of machinery produces in the occupation of individuals is 
much obscured by the fact that the machine workman is usually 
given the same name as was borne by his predecessor ; as, for 
example, men who operate a steam threshing machine are called 
threshers, though they may never have seen a flail and are almost 
as little fitted for operating a flail and winnowing apparatus as 
the old-time threshers would be to operate the new machine. 
The old occupation is gone. What we now have is a new occupa- 
tion passing under the old name. And a new class of workmen 
(machinists) are in charge. 

It is only when we speak of labor as a quantity or of laborers in 
mass that we can presume to say there has been no displacement 
of labor by machinery ; and yet there may be, in this sense also, a 
displacement of labor. The displacement may be absolute, as 
where the labor force in any line of work is decreased, or it may 
be only relative, as where the rate of increase in the number of 
laborers employed falls below the rate of increase of laborers 
employed in industries generally. 



54 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The Absolute Displacement 

For the agricultural industry considered as a whole, New 
England furnishes an instance of the absolute displacement of 
labor. In 1880 the population, ten years of age and over, en- 
gaged in agriculture, numbered 304,679 ; but in 1900 the number 
was only 287,829. This decrease was not due to a decadence of 
agriculture in those states, for the value of the New England 
agricultural products was more than fifty per cent greater in 1900 
than in 1880. 1 It must have been due to the introduction of 
machinery as indicated by the reported valuation of agricultural 
implements and machines, which increased from $1.68 per acre 
of improved land in 1880 to $4.49 per acre in 1900. 2 

With respect to the work of cultivating and caring for those 
nine crops in the production of which machinery appears to be 
most extensively used, we may determine what absolute displace- 
ment, if any, has taken place by finding in each case what amount 
of labor was necessarily employed in the time of production by 
hand methods and comparing that amount with the amount of 
labor necessarily employed in the time of production by machine 
methods. Data of crop production for the exact years covered by 
the report of the Department of Labor concerning production by 
hand method cannot be secured for all of the crops, but taking the 
best available data and tabulating results we have the following : 

DAYS' WORK OF MAN-LABOR REQUIRED FOR PRODUCING THE 



Crop of : 



By Methods of 



Days' Work 



Barley . 
Corn . . 
Cotton . 
Hay . . 
Oats . . 
Potatoes 
Rice . . 
Rye . . 
Wheat . 
Total 



1839 
1855 
1841 
1849 
1839 
1866 
1871 
1849 
1839 



1829-1830 

1855 

1841 

1850 

1830 

1866 

1870-1871 

1847-1848 

1829-1830 



882,007 

74,151,217 

13,717,188 

29,176,470 

20,381,312 

5,307,260 

124,383 

3,574,396 

2 5,905,766 



173,219,999 



FARM MACHINERY 



55 



DAYS' WORK OF MAN-LABOR REQUIRED FOR PRODUCING THE 





Crop of 


By Methods of 


Days' Work 


Difference in 
Days' Work 


Displacement 


Barley . 
Corn 
Cotton . 
Hay . . 
Oats . . 
Potatoes 
Rice . . 
Rye . . 
Wheat . 






1896 
1894 
1895 
1895 

1893 
1895 
1896 
1895 
1896 


I 89 5- I 896 

1894 

1895 

1895 

1893 

1895 

1895-1896 

1894-1895 

1895-1896 


630,354 
45,873,027 
28,178,904 
18,556,791 
11,334,266 
5,134,100 

108,889 

2,739^47 
7,099,560 


251-653 
28,278,190 

10,619,679 

9,047,046 

76,536 

15494 

835'249 

18,806,206 


Per cent 
28.5 
38.I 

364 

444 

3-3 
12.5 

234 
72.6 


Total 










119,655,038 


67,930'053 


42.5 



The table shows that in the work of producing each of the crops 
considered, excepting only the cotton crop, there has been an 
absolute displacement of man-labor. Disregarding the cotton crop, 
the absolute displacement in the work of producing the other eight 



1 The value of New England agricultural products, as reported in 1880, was 
$103,343,566; in 1900 it was $169,523,435 (Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, 

P- 703)- 

2 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. 698. 

3 The barley crop of 1839 was 4,161,504 bushels (Sixth Census, p. 408). 

The corn crop of 1855 is assumed to be 765,431,923 bushels. This is midway 
between the amounts reported to the Census Office in 1850 and i860. 

The cotton crop of 1841 was 1,634,945 bales (World Almanac for 1896, p. 164). 

The hay crop of 1849 was 13,838,642 tons (Eleventh Census, Agriculture, 
p. 90). 

The oats crop of 1839 was 123,054,992 (Report of U. S. Dept. Agr., 1862, p. 572). 

The potato crop of 1866 was 107,200,976 bushels (U. S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 
1898, p. 679). 

The rice crop of 1870-187 1 was 52,892,400 pounds (Letter of August 26, 1902, 
from the Department of Agriculture, Division of Statistics). 

The rye crop of 1849 was I 4, I 88,8i3 bushels (Patent Office Report, 1853, Pt. 2, 

P-I55)- 

The wheat crop of 1839 was 84,821,065 bushels (Report of U.S. Dept. Agr., 
1862, p. 572). 

Crop reports for the desired years could not be found in every case. When the 
difference between the year reported upon by the investigations of the Depart- 
ment of Labor and the nearest year for which a crop report could be had was 
greater than one year, a later crop report was preferred as yielding a displacement 
of labor too low rather than too high. 



56 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



crops is 42.5 per cent. If cotton be included in the summary 
and allowance be made for the additional labor employed in the 
production of that crop, the absolute displacement becomes 30.9 
per cent. 

The Relative Displacement 

The relative increase or decrease of the population engaged in 
agriculture as compared with the increase or decrease of the popu- 
lation engaged in each of the other occupation classes, for the 
continental portion of the United States, and for the several 
geographical divisions, during the period from 1880 to 1900, is 
shown in the tables on page 57. 

In the United States as a whole, and in each division, excepting 
only the Western division, the rate of increase in the agricultural 
population has been much lower than in any other one of the 
occupation classes. Not only this, but, subject to the same excep- 
tion, it has been lower than either the rate of increase in the total 
population or in the number of those engaged in gainful occupa- 
tions. We must conclude, therefore, that for the period from 1880 
to 1900, as compared with the growth in the number of those 
engaged in other industries, there has been a decrease in the 
number of those engaged in agriculture. 1 

The rate of increase of males and females in the various occu- 
pation classes has been very different. The relative rates # of 

1 Bringing together the data concerning the population engaged in agriculture, 
as presented in the foregoing tables, so as to show the relative rate of increase in 
that class in the different sections of the country, we have the following : 

POPULATION ENGAGED IN AGRICULTURE (MALES AND FEMALES) 





Base 


1880 


1890 


1900 




7,713,875 
1,048,442 
1,622,081 

2,735,525 

2,120,525 

187,302 


100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 


1 1 1 .04 
104.86 
102.89 

H3-94 
109.48 
191.51 


135-88 
102.47 
125.30 
128.26 


North Atlantic division 






155.66 
248.34 







FARM MACHINERY 



57 



STATISTICS OF OCCUPATIONS 
United States 



Males and Females Ten Years of Age and Ovei 



Base 



1880 


1890 


IOO 


129.0 


IOO 


130.7 


100 


III.O 


100 


156.6 


IOO 


123-3 


100 


178.2 


IOO 


150.0 



1900 



Total population 

In gainful occupations 

In agriculture 

In professional sendees 

In domestic and personal sendees . 
In trade and transportation . . . 
In manufacturing and mechanic arts 



,761,607 
392,099 

,713.875 
603,202 
423,815 
,866,481 
,784,726 



157.6 
167.2 

135-9 

208.7 
163.0 
255.4 
187.2 



North Atlantic Division 



Total population 

In gainful occupations 

In agriculture 

In professional' services 

In domestic and personal services . 
In trade and transportation . . . 
In manufacturing and mechanic arts 



11,270.090 
5,309,722 
1,048,442 

207,551 
1,211.958 

828^802 
2,012,969 



IOO 


123.2 


IOO 


131-3 


IOO 


104.9 


IOO 


144-3 


ICO 


I2T.I 


IOO 


I58.9 


IOO 


I38.I 



148.1 

161.6 

102.5 

198.2 
153-2 
225.4 
167.4 



South Atlantic Division 



Total population 

In gainful occupations 

In agriculture 

In professional services 

In domestic and personal senices . 
In trade and transportation . . . 
In manufacturing and mechanic arts 



5,286,645 

2,677,762 

1,622,081 

62,309 

517,429 

I7743 6 
298,507 




North Central Division 



Total population 

In gainful occupations 

In agriculture 

In professional services 

In domestic and personal services . 
In trade and transportation . . . . 
In manufacturing and mechanic arts 



12,760,841 
5,625,123 

2,735,525 

230,622 

1,025,089 

595,791 
1,038,096 



IOO 


132.5 


IOO 


136.4 


IOO 


H3-9 


100 


161. 


IOO 


129.6 


IOO 


193.2 


IOO 


164.3 



158.9 

170.3 
128.3 

207.4 
171.7 
280.5 

208.4 



South Central Division 



Total population 

In gainful occupations 

In agriculture 

In professional services" 

In domestic and personal services . 
In trade and transportation . . . 
In manufacturing and mechanic arts 



6,076,243 

3,022,173 
2,120,525 

73,455 
464,909 
161,449 
201,835 



IOO 


128.4 


IOO 


120.3 


IOO 
IOO 
IOO 


109.5 
155.6 

112. 7 


IOO 
IOO 


195-3 

178.5 



166.6 
172.4 

155-7 
207.4 
170.7 
294.8 
241.3 



Western Division 



Total population 

In gainful occupations 

In agriculture 

In professional sendees 

In domestic and personal services . 
In trade and transportation . . . 
In manufacturing and mechanic arts 



1,367,788 

757,319 
187,302 
29,265 
204,430 
103,003 

2 33,3!9 



IOO 


J75-5 


IOO 


176.5 


IOO 


191.5 


IOO 


228.6 


IOO 


156.1 


IOO 


227.3 


IOO 


153-3 



236.5 
224.9 

248.3 

333-i 
181.6 

320.3 

1S8.4 



58 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

increase, in the agricultural industry, as reported for the several 
sections of the country, are shown in the following table : 

POPULATION ENGAGED IN AGRICULTURE 



Base 



1890 



1900 



United States 
/ 

North Atlantic division 



f Males. ...... 

\ Females .... 

J Males , 
\ Females 

South Atlantic division ~t _ . 

^ .Females 

North Central division ■< _ 

females 

South Central division ■* _ , 

(females 



Western division ^ 



f Males 



Females 



7,119,365 

594,5io 
1,043,497 

4,945 

1,358,072 

264,009 

2,720,123 

15,402 

1,811,486 

309,039 

186,187 

1,115 



100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 



110.78 
114.19 

103-38 
418.07 
104.68 

93-67 
1 1 1.64 
520.47 
110.28 
104.80 
188.98 
613.36 



132.09 
164.39 
99.64 
701.37 
125.00 
126.86 

I2 5-3* 
649.38 

I55-03 
1 59-3o 

241-57 
1379-55 



The foregoing table shows that women, much more rapidly than 
men, are turning to agricultural pursuits. The introduction and 
use of machine power, by decreasing the requirements of physical 
strength, has placed men and women upon a more equal footing, 
and women promise now to invade the agricultural industry as 
they have heretofore invaded that of manufactures. 

We may ascertain the extent of the movement to or from any 
occupation class during any period by comparing the distribution 
of the people among the various occupation classes at the begin- 
ning of such period with their distribution at its close. 

The first table on page 59 shows, for the United States and for 
the several geographical divisions, what per cent of the total num- 
ber of those engaged in gainful occupations in 1870 and in 1900 
were in the several occupation classes. 

Finding the difference between these several pairs of per cents, 
and representing increases by positive numbers and decreases by 
negative numbers, we get the per cent of those engaged in gainful 
occupations who have shifted to or from the several occupation 
classes, during the period from 1870 to 1900 : 1 



1 See the second table on page 59. 



FARM MACHINERY 



59 







Agricul- 
ture 


Profes- 
sional 
Service 


Domestic 
and Per- 
sonal 
Service 


Trade and 
Transpor- 
tation 


Manufac- 
turing and 
Mechanic 
Arts 


United States .... 


1900 


35-7 


4-3 


19.2 


16.4 


24.4 




1870 


47.6 


3-o 


18.2 


9.8 


21.4 


North Atlantic division . 


1900 


12.5 


4.8 


21.6 


21.8 


39-3 




1870 


24.9 


34 


21.4 


14.2 


36.1 


South Atlantic division . 


1900 


50.8 


3-o 


20.O 


10.5 


15-7 




1870 


63.8 


2.0 


i7-5 


5-9 


10.8 


North Central division . 


1900 


36.6 


5-° 


18.4 


17.4 


22.6 




1870 


52-5 


34 


16.7 


9-3 


18.1 


South Central division . 


1900 


634 


2.9 


15.2 


9.1 


94 




1870 


7i-5 


2.2 


14.0 


5-3 


7.0 


Western division . . . 


1900 


27-3 


5-7 


21.8 


19.4 


25.8 




1870 


27.2 


3-i 


254 


12.4 


3 J -9 





Agricul- 
ture 


Profes- 
sional 
Service 


Domestic 
and Per- 
sonal 
Service 


Trade and 
Transpor- 
tation 


Manufac- 
turing and 
Mechanic 
Arts 


United States 


— II.9 1 


i-3 


I.O 


6.6 


3-o 


North Atlantic division 


— 12.4 


1.4 


0.2 


7.6 


3-2 


South Atlantic division 


-13.O 


1.0 


z-5 


4.6 


4.9 


North Central division . . 


-15-9 


1.6 


i-7 


8.1 


4-5 


South Central division . . 


- 8.1 


0.7 


1.2 


3-8 


2.4 


Western division .... 


— O.I 


2.6 


-3-6 


7.0 


- 6.1 



Now the total number engaged in gainful occupations in 1900 
was 29,074,117, and 1 1 .9 per cent of 29,074,1 17 gives 3,459,819 
as the number which, under the conditions existing in 1870, 
should ' have been found in the agricultural class in 1 900 in 



1 This — 1 1.9 per cent does not mean that there was a decrease, absolutely, in 
the number of those engaged in agriculture, but only relatively, and in this sense : 
that, whereas the number of those engaged in agriculture increased during the 
period from 1870 to 1900, the increase was so much less than in the other occu- 
pation classes that this particular class failed, by a number equal to 11. 9 per cent 
of the total number engaged in gainful occupations in 1900, to maintain its former 
proportion. A similar remark applies to each one of the other cases where a 
negative number appears. The decrease in the class of those engaged in manu- 
factures and mechanic arts in the Western division is due to the fact that, under 
the classification used, miners and quarrymen are included in that occupation 
class. In 1870 these workers constituted a high proportion of the total number 
engaged in gainful occupations in that division. 



6o 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



addition to the number actually found in that occupation class. 
The number reported as engaged in the agricultural industry, in 
1900, was 10,381,765. It appears, therefore, that during the 
period from 1870 to 1900 the agricultural class lost, relatively, 
almost one fourth of its membership. Of this number 1,523,365/ 
nearly one half of the total for the whole United States, were 
from the North Central States. 

A table constructed similarly to the one given above and show- 
ing, separately, the shifting of males and of females among the 
different occupation classes, during the period from 1870 to 1900, 
is presented herewith as follows : 

SHIFTING OF THE POPULATION ENGAGED IN THE DIFFERENT 
OCCUPATION CLASSES: 1870-1900 







Agri- 
culture 


Profes- 
sional 
Service 


Domestic 
and Per- 
sonal 
Services 


Trade and 
Transpor- 
tation 


Manufac- 
turing and 
Mechanic 
Arts 


f Males ."-'--. 


-12.5 

- 3- 2 


0.9 

3- 1 


2-5 

-13.6 


6.6 
8-3 


2-5 

54 


United States^ _ 

^Females 




North Atlantic division «i 


' Males . 

Females 


- 14.4 

i-5 


1.2 
1.2 


2-3 

- J 5-5 


7-5. 
10.9 


34 
1.9 


South Atlantic division < 


' Males . 
Females 


-13.8 
- 7-8 


0.6 
2.6 


3-6 
- 4-8 


5-3 
2.9 


4-3 
7-i 


North Central division -< 


r Males . 
Females 


-15-7 
54 


1.0 

2.6 


2.9 
-30.1 


8.0 
12.3 


3-8 
9.8 


South Central division * 


' Males . 

Females 


- 9.0 

- 34 


0.2 
2.9 


2-5 

- 5-7 


4.2 
2.4 


2.1 
3-8 


Western division < _ , 

[_ Females . . 


1.4 
5.0 


1-7 

6.7 


- 4-i 

— 26.0 


7.2 
12.1 


-6.2 

2.2 



It has been shown above that, relatively speaking, nearly three 
and a half million people changed from agriculture to other indus- 
tries during the thirty-year period 18 70- 1900. So great a dis- 
placement will, doubtless, at first seem incredible. There is need 



1 The number engaged in gainful occupations in the North Central States in 
1900 was 9,580,913 (Twelfth Census, Population, Vol. II, p. cxxviii). The portion 
of this population which, during the period from 1870 to 1900, has shifted from 
agriculture to other occupation classes was 15.9 per cent (see p. 59). 



FARM MACHINERY 6 1 

to look at the problem from another point of view : The total 
number of persons (i.e. farmers, planters, overseers, and agricul- 
tural laborers) reported in 1870 as engaged in farming operations 
was 5,948,561. They produced in that census year 1,388,526,403 
bushels of cereals. Making allowance for the short corn crop of 
1869, we may say that they were able to have produced 1,519,- 
704,342 bushels of cereals — an average of 255.4 bushels per 
worker. At this same rate, the 10,381,765 persons (i.e. farmers, 
planters, overseers, and agricultural workers) engaged in cereal 
production in the census year of 1900 could have produced 
2,651,502,781 bushels of cereals. The amount would, however, 
have been less than the actual product in 1899 by 1,783,195,965 
bushels. To have made good this deficiency, on the basis of the 
efficiency of the average worker in 1869, would have required an 
additional force of 6,981,973 workers. This is more than double 
the number of those who went from agriculture into other occupa- 
tions. We must, therefore, in all fairness, say, since the machine 
power introduced into the business of farm work during the period 
from 1869 to 1899 has more than taken the place of those 
workers who, during that period, removed from agriculture to 
other occupations, it has been the cause of their removal. That 
more have not so removed is, of course, due to the fact that the 
farm work of the present day calls for a great amount of work not 
demanded by the business of farming as followed in earlier years. 
********* 
But, one may ask, What becomes of the workers who are thus 
thrown out of employment ? and, Are there not some compensat- 
ing advantages ? The first of these questions is easily answered, 
for in the extreme case of an individual who suffers absolute 
displacement the only alternative from idleness is to accept a lower 
rate of wages for work in his accustomed employment or to enter 
as an inexperienced workman in some other employment at, most 
likely, a still lower rate of wages. His compensating advantage is 
an uncertain one and one hard to estimate. Besides, it does not 
ordinarily accrue until the time of his greatest need is passed. 1 It 

1 It is small consolation to a workingman to be assured that in a year's time 
he will have plenty of work, if in the meantime he must remain breadless. Loss 



62 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

arises from the decreased market price of the commodity which he 
formerly helped to produce. If it is a commodity which enters 
into his own consumption, then the lower price which he pays for 
it will, in a measure, offset the lower wage which he receives in 
his new occupation. If it is not a commodity which enters into 
his own consumption, then his compensating advantage must come 
through the stimulus which the decreased price of this particular 
commodity gives to other industries in which it is employed as 
raw material or, more properly, as a factor of production — 
cheaper raw material yielding, of course, a decreased cost of 
production, higher profits, and a stronger demand for labor. 1 

As to those workmen who suffer only relative displacement 
there is, ordinarily, no need for any compensating advantages. 
The greatest hardship which the use of machinery lays upon 
them is that of avoiding those occupations in which the demand 
for workmen is becoming weak. It will be noticed, too, that for 
every relative decrease in the number of persons engaged in one 
industry, there is a corresponding increase in some other industry. 
As a matter of fact, the persons engaged in gainful occupations 
constitute a greater proportion of the total population now than 
formerly. 



of work even for a few weeks may exhaust his credit and the affection and means 
of his friends, and there may remain nothing for him but starvation, unless poor- 
laws or private charity come to the rescue. — Nicholson, " Effects of Machinery 
on Wages," p. 30. 

1 Labor-saving methods seem to be a calamity, because the effect is to inter- 
fere with present pursuits and deprive some of their accustomed means of liveli- 
hood ; to render useless, skill acquired after a lifelong training. The benefits all 
seem to accrue to the person who first uses an invention, while the ones dis- 
placed are apparently shut out of the industrial system. It is not noticed how 
they are gradually absorbed into other channels of employment that open up as 
the cost of production is decreased. If such were not the case, the whole indus- 
trial mechanism would soon come to a standstill, considering the progress of 
inventions supplemented by the army of aliens that arrive yearly and the increas- 
ing proportion of women breadwinners. — Henry White, "The Problem of 
Machinery," The American Federationist, Vol. X, p. 83 



FARM MACHINERY 



63 



The Effect of the Use of Machinery upon the Size of Farms and 
the Resulting Relationship between the Dependent and the hide- 
pendent Farming Classes 

The average size of farms of the continental United States and 
in the several divisions, as shown by the successive census returns 
from 1850 to the present, given in acres, is as follows : x 



1900 



1890 



1880 



1870 



1860 



1850 



United States .... 
North Atlantic division 
South Atlantic division 
North Central division 
South Central division 
Western division . . 



147.0 

97-5 
109. 1 
145.2 
156.0 
393-5 



136-5 
95-3 

1334 

144.0 
324.1 



x 33-7 
97-7 
1574 
1 2 1.9 
150.6 
312.9 



J 53-3 
104.3 
241. 1 

1237 
194.4 

3364 



199.2 
108.1 
352-8 
J 39-7 
3 21 -3 
366.9 



202.6 
112.6 
376.4 
H3-3 
291.0 
694.9 



An inspection of the foregoing table shows that for the period 
from 1850 to 1880, for the whole United States and for each 
division, except the South Central, in i860, there was a constant 
tendency toward smaller farms. ' In the North Atlantic and South 
Central divisions this tendency is shown to have been still in oper- 
ation in 1890, and the average size of farms in the North Atlantic 
division in 1900, although greater than in 1890, was still a trifle 
below the average shown for 1880. In the South Atlantic division 
the tendency toward smaller farms has continued unbroken to the 
present time ; but otherwise, for the several divisions and for the 
United States as a whole, the year 1880 marks the point of 
the smallest average-sized farms. The returns subsequent to that 
date, except in the cases noted, show a marked increase in the 
average size of farms. 

The total area in farms may, however, be somewhat misleading 
when considered as an index of the extent of farming operations 
subject to the influence of machinery, as will clearly appear upon 
a comparison of the data in the table last above given with those 
of the following table showing the average number of acres of 
improved land, per farm, 1 850-1900, inclusive. 2 

1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. 688. 

2 Ibid., p. xxii. 



6 4 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 





1900 


1890 


1880 


1870 


I860 


1850 


United States 

North Atlantic division 

South Atlantic division 

North Central division 

South Central division 

Western division 


72.7 

57-4 

47-9 

101.2 

48.3 
111.8 


78.3 
64-3 

55.6 

95.8 

61.0 

157-8 


71.O 

66.6 
56.1 
80.6 
56.2 
185.9 


7I.O 
68.3 
80.7 
69.7 
60.8 

1 68. i 


79-8 

69.0 

1 15.6 

67.7 

89.7 
106.4 


78.O 

69-3 
120.9 
6l.O 
82.6 
51.8 



By this table it appears that the lowest average number of acres 
of improved land per farm, for the United States as a whole, was 
reached in 1870; that this average was the same in 1880; and 
that while it rose somewhat in 1890, it fell again in 1900 almost 
to the level for 1870 and 1880. Turning to the several divisions 
we find that, with but one exception, the movement toward smaller 
farms continues and is apparent in the returns for 1900. The one 
exception is, however, all important in this discussion, for it is the 
North Central division, the one above all others devoted to the use 
of farm machinery, and in this division it is shown, not only 
for the period from 1880 but for the whole period from 1850 to 
1900, that there has been a strong and unvarying increase in the 
average number of acres of improved land per farm, rising from 
an average of 61.0 acres in 1850 to 101.2 acres in 1900. 

The average number of acres in crops is a still better index to 
the extent of farming operations. Unfortunately, this average 
cannot be given for the whole of the period from 1850 to 1900 ; 
but for the more important part of that period, namely from 1880 
to 1900, it can be given with tolerable completeness. 

The first table on page 65 shows the average number of acres 
in all farm crops, per farm of ten acres and over, in 1880, 1890, 
and 1900, and agrees, in general, with the corresponding por- 
tion of the table showing the average number of acres of im- 
proved land per farm ; but it is to be noted that, according to 
the table now presented, the average crop area per farm is less 
for the years 1890 and 1900 than for the year 1880 in only 
two divisions ; namely, the South Atlantic and South Central. In 
each of the other divisions, and for the United States as a whole, 
the average crop acreage per farm, both for 1890 and 1900, is 



FARM MACHINERY 



65 



greater than in 1880. The movement toward a larger average 
crop acreage is especially strong in the North Central division. 

AVERAGE NUMBER OF ACRES IN ALL FARM CROPS, PER FARM 
OF TEN ACRES AND OVER, IN 1880, 1890, AND 1900 1 





1900 


1890 


1880 




49.8 

35-i 
29.4 

73-° 
33-6 
68.5 


48.6 

357 
334 
65.1 

34-3 
68.4 


42.6 

33-7 
36.2 

5 T -5 
34-6 
64-5 















The relative strength of the tendency toward a greater average 
crop acreage per farm will be more readily appreciated if the facts 
disclosed in the foregoing table are presented from the basis of a 
common denominator, as follows : 

INDEX NUMBERS REPRESENTING THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF 

ACRES IN ALL FARM CROPS, PER FARM OF TEN ACRES AND 

OVER, IN 1880, 1890, AND 1900 





Base 


1880 


1890 


1900 




42.6 

337 
36.2 

5i-5 
34-6 
64.5 


IOO 
IOO 
IOO 
IOO 
IOO 

IOO 


II4. 1 
IO5.9 

9 2 -3 
126.4 

99.1 
106.0 


1 16.9 

IO4.2 
80.9 

141.8 
97.I 

106.2 


North Atlantic division 


South Atlantic division 


North Central division 




Western division 







There are three principal causes which have operated to produce 
the different conditions disclosed by this last table. 

First : As between the North and South, there is a difference 
in the character of the workers. The negro workmen, as compared 
with the white workmen in the North and West, are lacking in 

1 Number of farms derived from Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, pp. 688, 
690. 



66 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the intelligence requisite for conducting extensive farming opera- 
tions, as also for the using of machine power advantageously. 
This, coupled with the breaking up of the old plantation system, 
has tended to give smaller farms in the South Atlantic and South 
Central divisions. 1 

Second : The character of the principal crops cultivated in the 
Southern states are those in the cultivation of which, as compared 
with the crops raised in the Northern states, machine power is but 
little used. The only machine which plays any considerable part 
in the production of the distinctively Southern crops is the cotton 
gin, and the influence of this machine was in full operation long 
before the year 1880 ; whereas the influence of the machines used 
in the production, of the distinctively Northern crops was, at that 
time, only fairly well under way. 

Third : As between the North Atlantic, North Central, and 
Western divisions, the character of the cultivation affects the size 
of farms. The North Atlantic States are much devoted to market 
gardening, and the general character of farm work in that division 
is, therefore, more intensive, and a given area gives employment 
for a greater quantity of both machine and man-labor power. 
The Western States, in like manner, much more than the North 
Central States, are devoted to market garden and orchard products. 2 
The North Central States lead in what may be termed field crops. 3 

Looking to the total farm acreage, it may seem questionable 
whether the effect of machinery is to increase or decrease the 
size of farms. But it is noticeable that the total farm acreage 
includes land kept for stock-raising, for timber supply, for specu- 
lation, etc. and includes altogether too much of that with which 
machinery has nothing to do, to make it a fit basis for a study of 
the influence of farm machinery either upon the size of farms or 
upon the nature and extent of farm work. When we use the word 
" farm " to denote only that portion of the land with which machin- 
ery has to do (i.e. the area devoted to the production qf. crops), it 
becomes apparent that, other things being equal, the use of farm 

1 Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 123-129. 

2 See Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, pp. 324, 599 et seq. 

3 See pages 67-68. 



FARM MACHINERY 



67 



machinery leads to, or is at any rate accompanied by, an increase 
in the size of farms. This increase is most marked in the states 
of the North Central division. 

So7fie Consequences Resulting from the Use of Farm Machinery 
in the Region most devoted to its Use 

It has been shown that the cereal and hay crops are those in 
the production of which machine power plays the greatest part. 
It now becomes needful to know the relative importance of the 
cereal and hay crops in the different divisions of the country. 
The following table shows for the United States and for the 
several geographical divisions the total number of acres in all 
crops ; the total number of acres in cereals and hay ; and the per 
cent which the total acreage in the cereals and hay bears to the 
total crop acreage, as reported by the census of 1900. 





Total Crop 
Acreage x 


Total Acreage in 
Cereals and Hay 


Per Cent 


United States 

North Atlantic division .... 
South Atlantic division .... 

North Central division 

South Central division 

Western division 


289,734,59! 
24,683,365 
29,194,661 

163,000,561 
56,233,143 
16,622,861 


246,674,289 
21,876,493 
19,125,863 

155,000,940 
35,405,091 
15,265,902 


85.I 

88.6 

65.5 

95-i 
62.9 

91.8 



For the purpose of further narrowing the field of investigation, 
it may be assumed also, as a matter of common knowledge, that, 
although machinery is much used in the production of hay, the 
work of hay production constitutes relatively but a small portion 
of the total work requisite for the production of both cereals and 
hay. It is, therefore, the cereal-producing regions to which we 
must look for the most marked effects of the use of farm machinery. 

The table on next page, taken from the report of the Twelfth 
Census, 2 indicates the distribution of the cereal crops and the 



1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 62. 

2 Ibid. 



68 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



relative importance of the cereal crops, from the standpoint both 
of acreage devoted to their production and of the value of the 
product as compared with the acreage and value of all crops. 



Per Cent of 

Acreage of All 
Crops in Cereals 



Per Cent of 

Value of All 

Crops in Cereals 



Average Value per 
Acre 



All crops 



Cereals 



United States . . . . 
North Atlantic division 
South Atlantic division 
North Central division . 
South Central division . 
Western division . . ' . 



63.8 

36.3 
58.1 

73- 2 
56.1 

494 



51.0 
26.6 
33-6 
71. 1 

36-3 
37 -o 



10.04 


$8.02 


1:5-19 


11. 14 


11.32 


6.55 


8.42 


8.18 


10.99 


7.12 


II.-59 


8.69 



The North Central division ranked first in the production of 
cereals, not only in 1899 but also in 1889 and in 1879. 1 It 
ranked first also in the production of hay. 2 That it is the region 
of increasing average size of farms and of increasing crop acreage 
per person engaged in farm work has already been shown. The 
North Central States will therefore furnish the best field for a 
study of the effects of farm machinery. 

Among the states of the North Central division there were 
seven which, for the year 1899, reported that over 70 per cent 
of their total crop acreage was in cereals, and also that the value 
of their cereal crops for that year constituted more than 70 per 
cent of the value of their total crop production. 3 The seven states 
and the per cent of their reported cereal acreage and cereal crop 
values to their total crop acreage and crop values, respectively, are 
shown in the table at the top of page 69. 4 

The hay and forage acreage of these seven states, in 1899, was 
35.6 per cent of the total hay and forage acreage of the United 
States 5 and their acreage in cereals and hay and forage was 

1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 63. 

2 Ibid., p. 215. 

3 Oklahoma is the only other state or territory in the Union which reported 
so high a per cent of acreage and value in cereals for the year 1899. But no 
separate report was returned for Oklahoma in 1880, and it is, therefore, necessarily 
omitted from this study. 

4 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 62. 5 Ibid., p. 215. 



FARM MACHINERY 



69 



State 


Cereal Acreage, of 
Total Crop Acreage 


Cereal Value, of 
Total Crop Value 




Per cent 
80.4 
76-3 

72-5 
79-7 
74.0 

7*7 
70.2 


Per cent 
77.6 
76.9 
74.2 
82.3 

75-9 
744 
78.3 








Minnesota 

North Dakota 







96.6 per cent of their own total crop acreage. 1 These seven states 
constitute, therefore, a region in which the cultivated area is 
almost wholly devoted to the production of those crops in the 
cultivation and handling of which farm machinery is most used. 
Their acreage in the different farm crops, as reported to the 
Census Office, for the period of 18 80- 1900, was as follows : 



1900 



1890 



Cereals 2 . . 
Hay and forage 
Tobacco 4 . . 
Hops 5 . . . 
Cotton 6 . . . 
Totals 



82,116,414 
22,010,381 

2,587 
911 

153 



58,522,442 

I9>770,323 

4,500 

46 

73i 



39,923,160 

7.998,365 

6,906 

103 



104,130,446 



78,298,042 



47>928,534 



The average acreage in farm crops, per farm of ten acres and 
over, 7 was, in 1880, 64.4 acres; in 1890, 86.2 acres; in 1900, 
102.5 acres. The average acreage in all farm crops, per person 
cultivating such crops, 8 was, in 1880, 40.6 acres; in 1890, 53.9 
acres ; in 1900, 62.4 acres. 

1 The total crop acreage of these seven states in 1899 was 108,394,908 acres 
(Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 62). 

2 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol*. II, p. 63. 

3 Ibid., p. 215. 4 Ibid., p. 527. 

5 Ibid., p. 540 ; Eleventh Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 91 et seq. 

6 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 424. 

7 Tracts of less than ten acres are excluded as being vegetable, or truck, farms 
rather than farms for the raising of the crops here considered. For number of 
farms, see Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, pp. 688, 690. 

8 Agricultural laborers, farmers, planters, and overseers. 



7o 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Presenting these data in form to show the relative rates of 
increase, we have the following : 





Base 


1880 


1890 


1900 


Average acreage in all farm crops per farm . . . 
Average acreage in all farm crops per person culti- 


64.4 

40.6 


IOO 
IOO 


133-9 
132.8 


159.2 
1537 





The tendency in machine-using states toward a greater crop 
acreage per farm and per person is strong and unmistakable. 1 
The persons who cultivated these crops are classified as follows : 





1900 


1890 


1880 


Agricultural laborers 2 

Farmers, planters, and overseers .... 


612,418 

1,056,237 


359394 
1,091,867 


352,565 
828,800 


Totals 


1,668,655 


1,451,761 


1,181,365 





Presented from the basis of a common denominator, these data 
show rates of increase as follows : 





Base 


1880 


1890 3 


1900 




352,565 
828,800 


IOO 
IOO 


102. 1 

i3!-7 


173-6 
127.4 


Farmers, planters, and overseers 



1 With the coming of the great harvesters, the planters, cultivators, and 
scores of other farm mechanisms there was an opportunity to double and quad- 
ruple the crops, and the farms gradually increased from ten and twenty acres to 
one and two hundred. — George E. Walsh, " Machinery in Agriculture," Cassier's 
Magazine, Vol. XIX, p. 139 

2 This includes 4264 garden and nursery laborers in the returns for 1900 and 
probably one half as many of the same in the returns for 1890 and for 1880; but 
they were not separately reported by the Te*nth and Eleventh censuses, and hence 
cannot be discarded. 

3 The returns of the Eleventh Census are known to have been very defective 
in this, that " farmers' sons and daughters were often reported as farmers rather 
than as farm laborers, thus very much complicating the occupation returns in 
this class" (Letter of Carroll D. Wright, under date of Dec. 29, 1899). That 
some such error must have crept into the returns is evident on a consideration 
of the rate of increase of the two classes (i.e. J' agricultural laborers " and "farmers, 



FARM MACHINERY 



71 



Disregarding the returns of the Eleventh Census, let us consider 
what these per cents indicate. Starting in 1880 with a given ratio 
between the number of farm employees and employers, we find that 
in twenty years the employed, or dependent, class has increased 73.6 
per cent, while the employing, or independent, class has increased 
only 27.4 per cent. In other words, during the twenty-year period 
from 1880 to 1900, the dependent increased 46.2 per cent more 
rapidly than did the independent class. With these figures in mind, 
one needs but a moment's reflection to satisfy himself that, at the 
rates of increase indicated, the dependent class of farm operators 
must soon outnumber the independent class. 1 There is no need here 
for argument that a large dependent class is dangerous to society. 2 

The reason for this condition of affairs has been already indi- 
cated. The profitable use of a machine requires that it shall have 

planters, and overseers"), when taken together. The combined rate of increase 
appears as follows : 





Base 


1880 


1890 


1900 


Agricultural laborers, farmers, planters, and overseers 


1,181,365 


100 


122.9 


141.2 





These figures show that the total population engaged in farming increased at 
a uniform rate, and there seems no good reason for supposing that there was in 
fact any such extraordinary movement from the class of employees to the class 
of employers and then back again within the period of twenty years from 1880 to 
1900, as indicated by the returns. 

1 Of these evils that which is most serious and general is the divorce which 
machinery is bringing about between labor and capital. So far has this already 
gone that people have come to think of the two as things naturally distinct from 
each other, and to regard it as a normal state of affairs that the persons who 
perform the manual toil of a country shall be absolutely dependent for employ- 
ment on a comparatively small class known specifically as capitalists, in whose 
hands are concentrated the implements with which alone modern industry can be 
successfully carried on. That such dependence is unfavorable to the highest type 
of manhood will hardly be questioned ; and the enormous extent to which machin- 
ery has increased and is still increasing the percentage of persons subject to such 
dependence is surely a most serious* matter. The manhood of a nation is its most 
precious possession, for the loss or deterioration of which no increase of material 
wealth can adequately compensate. — Edward T. Peters, " Some Economic and 
Social Effects of Machinery," p. 2 

2 In 1890 the proportion of male agricultural laborers reported as unemployed 
during some portion of the census year was 17.2 per cent; in 1900 it was 36.1 per 
cent. Females, in 1890, 18.6 per cent; in 1900, 44.3 per cent (Twelfth Census, 
Occupations, pp. ccxxviii-ccxxxi). 



72 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a field of operation suited to its capacity ; * just as a man, in order 
that he may work to best advantage, requires more and heavier 
labor than that suited to a boy. Hence the movement toward 
larger farms and greater average crop acreage per farm so notice- 
able in the machine-using states. Moreover, the larger farms call 
for a corresponding increase in the amount of capital at the com- 
mand of the farmer, especially when, as in this country, there is a 
tendency toward more intensive cultivation. This is equally true 
whether the farmer be an owner or a tenant. The increasing 
amount of capital requisite for farm proprietorship makes it more 
and more difficult for a member of the dependent class (i.e. an 
agricultural laborer) to become a proprietor. 2 His option to work 
for himself or to work for wages is more and more qualified, and 
hence the greater proportionate increase in the membership of the 
dependent class. That there has been a constant increase in the 
amount of capital requisite for farm proprietorship will be evident 
from an inspection of the following data, showing for this group 
of seven states, as reported to the Census Office : 

1. The average value, per farm, of all farm property, including 
land with improvements, implements and machinery, and live stock, 
was, in 1880, $3515 ; in 1890, $4859; in 1900, ^653 1 , 3 

2. The average value, per farm, of lands with improvements, 
including buildings, was, in 1880, $2835; i n 1890, $3930; in 
1900, $5358. 4 

1 In order to make the steam-power machines of value, the farms must be 
large and extensive. On small farms they would prove too costly either in the 
operation or initial expense. For this reason it has been said that steam power 
could never supplant horse power on the farms, for our democratic notions 
demand that farming-lands shall never be consolidated in the hands of a few, and 
farming on a gigantic scale can never represent more than a very limited part of 
the industry in this country. Yet the tendency in the West is to operate enormous 
farms, combining several rather than cutting up into smaller ones. — George E. 
Walsh, " Steam Power for Agricultural Purposes," Harpers Weekly, Vol. XLV, 
P-567 

2 No English agricultural laborer, in his most sanguine dreams, has the vista of 
occupying, still less of possessing, land. He cannot rise in his calling. He cannot 
cherish any ambition, and he is in consequence dull and brutish, reckless and 
supine. — Rogers, " History of Agriculture and Prices," Vol. I, p. 693 

3 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, pp. 688, 694. 

4 Ibid., pp. 688, 696. 



FARM MACHINERY 



73 



3. The average value, per farm, of implements and machinery 
on farms was, in 1880, $136; in 1890, #151 ; in 1900, ^2o8. 1 

The rate at which these several factors have increased will 
appear in the following : 



Base 



1890 



1900 



Average value of all farm property 

Average value of farms (land and improvements) 
Average value of implements and machines 

Farmers, planters, and overseers 

Agricultural laborers 



2,835 

136 

828,800 

352,565 



100 
100 
100 
100 
100 



138.2 
138.6 



185.8 
189.0 
152.9 
127.4 
I73- 6 



Wages under Hand and under Machine Methods 



Daily Wages — Wages of Skilled and Unskilled Workmen 

Touching the matter of daily wages for the same work under 
hand and under machine methods of production, the Thirteenth 
Annual Report of the Department of Labor is, probably, the best 
source of information. That report shows, in typical cases, the 
rates of wages paid for the different kinds of work required in 
the production of twenty-seven different farm crops by hand and 
by machine methods. The data in twenty-six cases are available 
for our present purpose. 

It appears by that report that the lowest wage customarily paid, 
in the season of 18 29- 18 30, to any workman engaged in the 
production of wheat, by hand method, was 50 cents ; the highest, 
75 cents. In 1 895-1 896, the lowest daily wage reported for 
workmen engaged in the production of wheat, by machine method, 
was $1.50; the highest, $4.50. The average rate of wages for 
this work, in 1829-1830, was 57 cents; in 1895-1896, it was 
$2.47.2 Collecting similar data from each of the twenty-six sets 
of usable returns, we have the following : 



1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, pp. 688, 698. 

2 The average here used is a weighted average, secured by dividing the total 
amount of wages paid by the total number of days' work performed at the different 
rates of wages. 



74 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 
DAILY WAGES 



Unit 
Num- 
ber 1 


Crop 


Hand 
Labor 


Machine 
Labor 


Hand Method 


Machine 
Method 


Average Daily 
Wages 


Lowest 


Highest 


Low- 
est 


High- 
est 


Hand 


Ma- 
chine 






Date 


Date 














I 


Apple trees . 


1870-1872 


1893-1895 


$.85 


$2.00 


$•85 


$2.00 


$1.56 


$1.59 


2 


Apple trees . 


1869-187 1 


I 893-I 89 5 




85 


2.00 


•85 


2.00 


I.56 


I.28 


3 


Barley . . . 


I 829-I 830 


1895-1896 




50 


•75 


1.50 


4-5° 


.56 


2.21 


4 


Beets . . . . 


1850 


1895 




40 


•75 


1. 00 


1.00 


.69 


1.00 


5 


Broom corn . 


i860 


1895 




50 


1. 00 


1.25 


1.50 


•99 


I.25 


6 


Carrot . . . 


1855 


l8 95 




40 


•75 


•75 


1.25 


.62 


I.OI 


7 


Carrot . . . 


1850 


l8 95 




40 


•7 5 


•75 


1.25 


.72 


.90 


8 


Corn . . . . 


1855 


1894 




75 


1. 00 


1. 00 


2.50 


.78 


i-53 


9 


Corn . . . . 


1855 


1894 




50 


1. 00 


1. 00 


1.00 


•94 


1.00 


IO 


Cotton . . . 


184I 


1895 




5° 


•50 


•50 


1.00 


•50 


•99 


ii 


Hay . . . . 


i860 


1894 




5° 


1. 00 


•75 


1.25 


.86 


1. 11 


12 


Hay . . . . 


1850 


1895 




5° 


1. 00 


•75 


1.25 


•83 


1.05 


13 


Oats . . . . 


1830 


1893 




50 


•75 


1.25 


2.50 


.56 


1.50 


14 


Onion . . . 


1850 


1895 




40 


•75 


•75 


1.25 


.70 


1.00 


15 


Peas . . . . 


1856 


1895 




62P 


•62£2 


I.OO 2 


2.00 2 


•62i 2 


I.04 2 


16 


Potatoes . . 


1866 


1895 


I 


00 


1. 00 


1. 00 


1.00 


1.00 


1.00 


17 


Rice . . . . 


1870 


1895 


I 


00 


1. 00 


.65 


.65 


1.00 


.65 


18 


Rye . . . . 


1847-1848 


1894-1895 




63 2 


•75 2 


I.OO 2 


2.00 2 


.6 5 2 


I.05 2 


19 


Strawberry . 


1871-1872 


1894-1895 












1.30 


1.38 


20 


Sugar cane . 


1855 


1895 


I 


00 


1. 00 


.65 


.65 


1.00 


.65 


21 


Sweet potato 


l86l 


1895 




50 


1. 00 


.40 


.80 


.76 


.62 


23 


Tobacco . . 


1844 


1895 




75 2 


•75 2 


I.OO 2 


I.OO 2 


•75 2 


I.OO 2 


24 


Tomato . . . 


1870 


1895 




5° 


1. 00 






•93 


.91 


25 


Turnip . . . 


1855 


1895 




40 


•75 


•75 


1.25 


•59 


.88 


26 


Wheat . . . 


1829-1830 


1895-1896 




50 


•75 


1.50 


4-5° 


•58 


2.00 


27 


Wheat . . . 


1829-1830 


1895-1896 




50 


•75 


1.50 


4-5° 


•57 


2.47 



It is evident from an inspection of the foregoing table that the 
variation between the highest and lowest rates of daily wages is 
much greater under machine methods than under hand methods 
and that the average rate of wages is much higher under machine 
methods than under hand methods. An average of averages gives 
83 cents for the hand method, $1.19 for machine method. 

Of course, machine power is much more used in the produc- 
tion of some of these crops than in the production of others. In 



1 See footnote 2, p. 45. 



2 With board. 



FARM MACHINERY 



75 



several cases production is still almost wholly by hand method. 1 In 
such cases the data are not what they appear to be, — a showing of 
hand method as compared with machine method, — but rather only 
a showing of production by hand method at different dates. 

It will be worth our while to inquire in what way the introduc- 
tion of machine power has affected the rates of wages for the 
work of producing these different crops. Turning first to a con- 
sideration of wages paid in the production of five crops, now 
largely produced by machine power, we collect the following data : 



Unit Number 



Crop 



Average Daily Wages 



Hand 



Machine 



II 
13 

27 



Barley 
Corn . 
Hay . 
Oats . 
Wheat 



S0.56 
.78 
86 
56 

57 



$2.21 

J -53 
1. 11 

1.50 
2.47 



An average of averages gives 66 cents for the hand methods 
and $1.76 for the machine method — an increase of 166 per cent. 

A similar showing for the five crops, in which there appears to 
have been little or no change in the methods of production, is 
as follows : 



Unit Number 2 



Crop 



Average Daily Wages 



Hand 


Machine 


$1-56 


$1.28 


I. OO 


1.00 


I.30 


1.38 


. 7 6 


.62 


■93 


.91 



2 
16 

J 9 
21 

24 



Apple trees . 
Potatoes . . 
Strawberries . 
Sweet potatoes 
Tomatoes . . 



An average of averages gives $ 1 . 1 1 as the average daily wage 
in the time of hand methods and $ 1 .04 as the average daily wage 
in the time of machine methods — a decrease of 6.3 per cent. 



1 Thirteenth Annual Report, Dept. Labor, p. n. 
' 2 See footnote 2, p. 45. 



76 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The position of the unskilled workman, 1 meaning now the 
workman who is untrained in the use of machinery, is a peculiar 
one. In a lecture on ballad poetry, delivered at the . University 
of Wisconsin in the spring of 1903, Professor Moulton, of The 
University of Chicago, called attention to the fact that before the 
time of written literature the best literary productions were equally . 
accessible to the free and to the unfree. The slave, as well as 
his master, might know and enjoy the choicest of literary pro- 
ductions. But, with the invention of writing and, especially, of 
printing, the best literature came to be put into book form. Books 
were expensive, and the knowledge requisite for using them could 
be acquired only by a long and difficult course of training. From 
the very nature of the case, the best literature thus became in- 
accessible both to the slaves and to the poorer classes of freemen. 
They could gain no positive advantage from the new invention ; 
and they lost, relatively, by reason of the intellectual gulf which 
opened between them and those others whose more fortunate 
stations gave both access to the written or printed volumes and 
afforded opportunity for learning how to use them. 

This same process is now working itself out in the matter of 
labor and machinery. To the skilled workman, machinery opens 
the way to profit and advancement. But to the unskilled work- 
man, it is as a sealed, or unintelligible, book. He does not 
understand it ; and the hopelessness of competing with one who 
does understand it only intensifies his consciousness of inferiority 
and increases the burden of his struggle for existence. 2 Having, 

1 There is, I think, a great deal of confusion and consequent misunderstanding 
arising from a loose use of the term " unskilled workman." We speak of paying 
higher wages to a skilled workman than to an unskilled workman ; but the essen- 
tial element is not skill but efficiency. Skill means rather proficiency, or dexterity, 
in the doing of a particular thing. It has reference to the person. But when we 
speak of a skilled machine workman, we have reference, not so much to the 
quality of the worker as to the quality of the work done, that is, to the product of 
his skill. The degree of skill which the machine workman possesses may, in fact, 
be much below that of the hand worker whom he displaces ; but he is a more 
efficient workman and, therefore, commands the higher wage. 

2 Under conditions where the laborer can offer no resistance and the so-called 
iron law of wages operates to keep him down to the life line, machinery only adds 
uncertainty to his other woes. He is, as it were, cut out of civilization. Whenever 



FARM MACHINERY 77 

ordinarily, neither machinery nor the capacity for using it, he 
is practically shut out from all chance of participating in its bene- 
fits. His wages, of necessity, are limited by the standard of his 
efficiency. It is inevitable, therefore, that the unskilled laborer 
should, relatively at any rate, sink ever lower and lower in the 
scale of industrial society. 

That we have been experiencing a transition period, not only 
with respect to the agricultural industry 1 but also with respect 
to all other industries, seems almost self-evident. I do not believe 
that the transition period is passed, nor do I believe that it ever 
will be safely and finally passed until the State, in the interest 
of the general welfare and in its capacity of agent for the whole 
social body, shall have provided for and required, as now so all 
but universally provided for and required in the more purely 
intellectual field, that every child shall be taught at least the 
rudiments of industrial art. 

Monthly Wages — Sympathetic Variations in Wage Rates 

McMaster 2 cites authorities showing that, in 1794, "in the 
states north of Pennsylvania," the wages of common laborers did 
not exceed three dollars per month, while " in Vermont, good 
men were hired for eighteen pounds a year, which was equal to 
four dollars per month, and out of this found their clothes." 
Speaking of wages, generally, in 1802, he says: 3 "The average 
rate of wages the land over was . . . sixty-five dollars a year, 
with food, and, perhaps, lodging." In 181 1, "throughout central 
Pennsylvania eight dollars per month of twenty-six working days 
was paid to farm hands when fed and clothed." 4 At Adrian, 
Michigan, in 1849, according to an apparently reliable authority: 

he presses upward and secures a larger share of an ever enlarging product, 
machinery becomes an uplifting force. — Henry White, " The Problem of 
Machinery," American Federationist, Vol. X, p. 86 

1 The introduction of improved agricultural implements and machinery during 
the latter half of the nineteenth century was a development of such importance 
as to amount to an industrial revolution in agriculture. — Report of the Industrial 
Commission (1901), Vol. X, p. xiv 

2 McMaster, " History of the People of the United States," Vol. II, p. 179. 

3 Ibid., p. 617. 4 Ibid. y Vol. III, p. 510. 



78 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



"The most common labor with board is worth from $50 to $75" 
a year. A higher quality, in which some care and responsibility 
are added, is worth $100 to $120. " * A similar report from 
Richmond, Massachusetts, made in the same year, states : " Men 
get from ten to sixteen dollars per month and boarded, for six 
months commencing in April." 2 

On the period from 1866 to 1899, I quote from a report of 
the Department of Agriculture, 3 as follows : 

WAGES OF FARM LABOR PER MONTH, BY YEAR OR SEASON, 
WITH BOARD, BY YEARS AND BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS* 





1899 


1898 


1895 


1894 


1893 


1892 


1890 


United States . . 


$14.07 


$1343 


#12.02 


$I2.l6 


$13.29 


$12.54 


$12.45 


Eastern States . 


I8.2I 


I7-63 


17-73 


I7-I5 


18.45 


I7-50 


17.71 


Middle States . . 


15-93 


15-33 


1573 


15.60 


16.51 


1578 


15.61 


Southern States . 


9.70 


9-45 


8.68 


9.04 


9.92 


I0.02 


IO.IO 


Western States . 


16.70 


1575 


15.21 


14.96 


16.29 


I5-36 


15.00 


Mountain States . 


25.IO 


23-94 


19.87 


19.94 


23-37 


21.28 


20.64 


Pacific States . . 


24.97 


23-30 


20.54 


22.6o 


25-63 


24.25 


22.50 





1888 


1885 


1882 


1879- 


1875 


1869 


1866 


United States . . 


$12.36 


$12.34 


$12.41 


$10.43 


$11.07 


$11.03 


$12.38 


Eastern States . 


17.21 


16.70 


16.92 


I3-03 


16.18 


15.29 


14-77 


Middle States . . 


I5-4I 


15.24 


14.71 


12.37 


1478 


12.25 


13-33 


Southern States . 


9.90 


9.90 


9.92 


8.46 


8.65 


7-03 


7.62 


Western States . 


15.09 


15.20 


15.60 


12-75 


1343 


II.36 


12.09 


Mountain States . 


21.99 


19.74 


27.08 








11.78 


Pacific States . . 


25.08 


24-37 


2 373 


25.88 


28.12 


2 5-44 


29.47 



1 U. S. Patent Office Report, 1849-1850, p. 186. 

2 Ibid., p. 92. 

3 Division of Statistics, Misc. Bulletin No. 22, p. 16. 

4 The geographical divisions used in this table " are composed as follows : 
Eastern States — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut; Middle States — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware; 
Southern States — Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, 
Arkansas, Tennessee ; Western States — West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Michi- 
gan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
South Dakota, North Dakota; Mountain States — Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, 



FARM MACHINERY 79 

The Department of Agriculture has also reported on the 
"wages of farm labor per month, by year or season, with board," 
for the year 1902. 1 The average rate for the whole United 
States is given as $16.40; but the average rates for the several 
geographical divisions are not given. In a letter dated September 
16, 1904, the secretary states that it was deemed unwise for the 
department so to extend the report on this last investigation. He 
suggests, however, that for the purposes of this study it would 
be allowable to make use of such "apparent" averages as are 
indicated by the published report. Agreeable to this suggestion, 
I have averaged the wages reported for the states in the several 
groups and secured the following as the average wage rates in 
1902 : Eastern States, $19.85 ; Middle States, $16.61 ; South- 
ern States, $11.85; Western States, $19.48; Mountain States, 
$28.91 ; Pacific States, $27.90. These figures are averages of 
averages and must, therefore, be taken with some allowance. 
Accepting as true the average rate for the several states as re- 
ported by the department, the rate here given for the Middle 
States is clearly too low, since Delaware, whose wage rate was 
$13.81, is given equal weight with New York, whose wage rate 
was $19.65. The rate here given for the Pacific States is like- 
wise too low, since Oregon, whose wage rate was $25.98, is given 
equal weight with California, whose wage rate was $29.38. For 
the Southern and for the Western States the rate here given is 
probably too high, the highest rates being reported for the less 
populous states. For the other groups the rates here given are 
approximately correct. 

By reference to the accompanying tables it may readily be seen 
that the average rate of wages for the whole of the United States 



New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho; Pacific States — Washington, Oregon, 
California" (U.S. Dept. Agr., Division of Statistics, Misc. Bulletin No. 22, p. 16). 

The data for the years prior to 1879 have been changed to a gold basis and a 
correction has been made, of what was evidently a clerical error, in the rate 
reported for the Western States in 1866. For the purpose of making this correc- 
tion the cost of board in the Western States, in 1866, was assumed to have been 
the same as in the Pacific States, where wages without board were practically the 
same at that date as in the Western States. 

1 U.S. Dept. Agr., Division of Statistics, Misc. Bulletin No. 26, p. 15. 



80 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

was somewhat higher in 1899 and in 1902 than in 1866. It is 
very evident, however, that the line of wages for the whole of 
the United States is very largely controlled by the wage rates 
in the Southern States. It is hardly fair to strike an average of 
wages by considering together the wages of two such different 
classes of people as the whites and the blacks. We can avoid 
this incongruity for a considerable portion of the period under 
consideration. 

Taking the number of agricultural laborers in the Mountain, 
Pacific, Eastern, and Western states (i.e. the whole of the United 
States, exclusive of the Southern States), to have been in 1899 
as reported in 1900, we find that the average rate of wages per 
month, with board, was, in 1899, 17.31. 1 In like manner, the 
average monthly wage in the same region in 1890 is found to 
have been $15.81; in 1879 it was $13.14 ; 2 in 1869 it was 
$i2.2g. B The increase in the average rate per month, during 
the period from 1869 to 1899, was 40.8 per cent. 

In the matter of general well-being the agricultural laborers, 
in the North at any rate, have, of course, shared the homes of 
their employers ; clothing has certainly been cheaper in late 
years ; and, altogether, it seems safe to say that the condition 
of the dependent white agricultural laborers is much improved. 4 

1 In getting this average, I found first the total number of agricultural laborers 
in each of the geographical divisions named and then found the total wage pay- 
ment in each group at the rates given in the table on page 78. The sum of these 
wage payments divided by the total number of agricultural laborers in all the 
groups gives the quotient $17.31. 

2 The number of agricultural laborers in 1879 * s assumed to have been the 
same as that reported in 1880, and the average rate of wages in the Mountain 
States is assumed to have been the same as was reported for the Pacific States. 

3 The number of agricultural laborers in 1869 is assumed to have been the 
same as was reported in 1870, and the average rate of wages in the Mountain 
States is assumed to have been the same as was reported for the Pacific States. 

In the matter of the 20,321 agricultural laborers reported by the Ninth Census 
as being in the territories, it should be noted that these have been apportioned 
somewhat arbitrarily, as follows : to the Mountain States, 1 5,000 ; to the Pacific 
States, 1500; to the Western States, 3821. 

4 Eine weitere Verbesserung des Arbeitereinkommens ist in der vermehrten 
Kaufkraft des Geldes zu suchen. Sowohl die Kleidungsstlicke als auch andere 
Gebrauchsartikel sind durch die hervorragende Anwendung der Machinenarbeit 
in der Industrie bedeutend im Preise heruntergegangen ; dazu sind auch die 



FARM MACHINERY 8 1 

The accompanying table discloses a very strong tendency in 
the wage rates of the different parts of the country, especially in 
the region where white laborers are employed, to rise or fall 
together. The reason for this sympathetic fluctuation in rates 
lies, partly, in the somewhat characteristic dispositions of Ameri- 
cans to go wherever there is a prospect of more profitable em- 
ployment, 1 and partly in the ready means of communication and 
transportation. 2 That, the fluctuations are most marked in the 
Pacific and Mountain States is largely due to the less perfect 
means of communication and transportation and to the further 
fact that farming operations in those regions are rather closely 
confined to the production of a very few different crops, upon 
the productiveness of which depends practically the whole of the 
demand for labor. 3 

Lebensmittel meistens billiger zu kaufen. Der Arbeitslohn ist also nicht nur im 
allgemeinen absolut, sondern auch im Verhaltnis zu dem Preise der notwendigen 
Lebensmittel gestiegen. Inwieweit allerdings die landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen 
zur Verbilligung der Lebensmittel beigetragen haben, lasst sich zahlenmassig 
nicht bestimmen. Wir konnen uns sehr wohl denken, dass die Intensitat des 
Betriebes, die Anwendung der Maschinen, die Produktion so gesteigert haben, 
dass sie eine Verbilligung der Lebensmittel zur Folge hatten. . . . Wir denken 
dabei besonders an das klassische Land der Maschinenanwendung, an Amerika, 
welches noch vor wenigen Jahren der deutschen Getreideproduktion am gefahr- 
lichsten war. Wie hoch sind dort die Arbeitslohne und wie billig ist das 
Getreide ! — Bensing, " Einfluss der landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen," p. 73 

1 The United States perhaps affords the highest example of a body of labor 
prepared and equipped to seek its best market wherever that market may be. 
— Walker, "Wages," p. 180 

L'Americain de pur sang a cela de commun avec le Tartare, qu'il est campe 
etnon fixe sur le sol que ses pieds foulent. — M. Chevalier, " Lettres sur l'Ame- 
rique du nord," Vol. I, p. 196 

2 The mobility of capital and labor depend upon two factors, (1) means of 
transport, (2) knowledge of markets. Both of these elements have been influenced 
by machinery. — Nicholson, " Effects of Machinery on Wages," p. 104 

3 The greatest irregularity of employment in the North, particularly in the 
Northwest, is found where the farmers are engaged in raising one or two staple 
crops to the neglect or exclusion of any wide system of diversified industry. . . . 
There was of that irregularity far more in the early days of the West than there 
is to-day, because the great central states of the North, where over half of our 
products are raised, are tending naturally and inevitably, though slowly, toward 
a diversity of crops that keep the men engaged on the farms for a greater rela- 
tive proportion of the year ; and thus irregularity of employment, owing to this 
change, is decreasing. — L. G. Powers, "Report of the Industrial Commission," 
1901, Vol. X, p. 172 



82 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The Influence of Machinery tipon the Life and General Welfare 
of the Independent Farm Operators 

Statistical data showing the changed condition of the inde- 
pendent farm operators, separate and apart from the dependent 
operators, are not at hand. It will be worth while, however, 
to note what showing can be deduced concerning the income 
of the independent farm operators from the average income per 
agricultural worker during the twenty-year period from 1880 
to 1900. 

The value of agricultural products, per capita of persons ten 
years of age and over engaged in agriculture, as reported by the 
Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth censuses for the United States 
and for the several geographical divisions, was as follows : * 



United States . . . 
North Atlantic division 
South Atlantic division 
North Central division 
South Central division 
Western division . . 



1900 


1890 2 


$454-37 


$287.19 


620.20 


380.47 


229.01 


17546 


672.59 


357-05 


269.19 


206.89 


723.72 


433-95 



420.41 
165.26 

369-39 
187.87 

506.25 



Considering only the data for the United States, as a whole, 
we have found 3 that in 1879, 1890, and 1899, the average 
monthly wage of dependent farm workers was, respectively, 
$10.43, $ I2 -45> and $14.07, — an increase of 34.9 per cent in 
the twenty-year period. But the average value of agricultural 
products per farm worker for the years 1880, 1890, and 1900 



1 For data of value of products, see Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. 703. 

2 The low valuation reported by the Eleventh Census was not the result of a 
decreased production ; but rather, if it can be be proper to use the term at any 
time, to an overproduction. Take, for illustration, the case of corn : The corn 
crop produced in 1889 (the crop reported upon by the Eleventh Census) was so 
greatly in excess of the production in previous years that not only the price per 
bushel but the total value of the crop fell below that reported for any one of the 
nine preceding years. The same statement applies, more or less, to most of the 
staple farm crops for that year. (See U. S.Dept. Agr., Year Book, i<)o\,^.6ty)etseq.) 

3 See p. 78. 



FARM MACHINERY 83 

was, respectively, $286.82, $287.19, and $454-37, an increase 
of 58.4 per cent for practically the same twenty-year period. 1 

It is self-evident that if the increase in the income of the 
dependent class alone is represented by 34.9 per cent, while the 
increase in the income of all agricultural workers — dependent and 
independent taken together — is represented by 58.4 per cent, 
then the increase in the income of the independent class alone 
could be indicated only by a much higher number. How much 
higher we cannot tell, probably not less than 75 or 80 per cent. 
For the period from 1850 to 1900 the rate should, doubtless, be 
more than doubled. 

The independent farmer of the present day, who has hired 
workmen, does not find it needful to work always at the same 
laborious tasks he sets for his employees. At harvest time it is 
not the hired man but the farmer himself who tends the machines 
and does the lighter work. Farm buildings are more substantial 
and supplied with more conveniences than they were fifty, or 
even twenty, years ago. Good roads abound, and probably not 
less than one fourth of the farmers now have the advantages of 
a free delivery of mail. 2 Telephone service between farmhouses 
and connecting with the neighboring towns or cities is by no 
means uncommon. Railway and electric-car lines run through 
the farming districts, and where formerly there was a back-country 
farmhouse there is now, not infrequently, a suburban home. 
These advantages enable the modern farmer to keep well abreast 
of the times and to inform himself concerning measures and 
events nearly, if not quite, as well as the average resident of 
the towns. 3 

1 Excluding the Southern States, the corresponding showing for this twenty- 
year period is, for dependent workers, an increase of 31.7 per cent; for all farm 
workers, 71.2 per cent. 

2 The Superintendent of Free Delivery, in a letter dated January 27, 1903, 
stated that on February 1, 1903, there would "be 13,108 rural routes in operation " 
and that each carrier " serves an average of 100 families." 

3 The social and ethical sides of farm life are also making progress through 
the freer intercourse with the world, afforded by improved highways and by the 
extension of trolley lines. The contact of the younger generation with the life of 
the city is making new and more progressive methods of living almost a necessity. 
To-day, on many farms, the ' best room ' is none too good for the family. Musical 



84 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

It is rare, indeed, that the farmer of the present day cannot 
afford to send his children to school for at least six months of 
each school year during the greater portion of their school age. 
Our high schools and universities and especially our agricul- 
tural colleges (which, twenty years ago, were hardly known, 
except on paper) * furnish ample evidence both of the greater 
interest of the farming classes in higher education and of their 
fitness for the higher lines of work. 

Whether we look to the external signs of comfort and general 
welfare or to the character of the farmhouses, there appears 
overwhelming evidence of a great change for the better with 
respect both to the dependent and independent classes, 2 the 
greater advantage appearing, however, to be in favor of the 
independent class. 

To ascribe these improved conditions to the introduction and 
use of machine power alone would doubtless be to overstate the 
truth, and yet, even waiving the impracticability of providing the 
requisite food supply by the earlier methods of culture, it is not at 
all clear that, under those earlier methods of heavy and exhaustive 
toil, men could be able effectively to interest themselves in affairs of 

instruments are found in a large proportion of the country homes ; a daily paper, 
some of the best magazines, and often the leading novel of the day are not 
uncommon. . . . The attractiveness of our rural communities is growing. The 
movement of the population which has been so strongly toward the cities is now 
turning toward the country. Improved highways and the extension of trolley 
lines are bound to encourage this tendency. If formerly country people have 
sought homes in the cities, it is evident that the people of to-day are appreciating, 
as never before, that the country offers the strongest inducements for the building 
up of homes where health and the comforts of life can be enjoyed. — Chas. S; 
Phelps, " Is there a Decadence of New England Agriculture ? " New England 
Magazine, Vol. XXV, pp. 382-383 

1 U.S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1899, p. 173. 

2 But most have a false idea of farm life as it is to-day. The wife need not be 
the drudge she was once. Bearings have shifted, things are done differently, life 
runs smoother and better. More is accomplished with less wear of muscle and 
nerve. People work easier and do more, have greater leisure for recreation and 
self-culture. Much that the wife did formerly is provided for in other ways. . . . 
Advanced methods have made farming more profitable, easier indoors and out, 
have carried to the thinly settled country most of the refining influences and 
many of the advantages of city life. — Clarence E. Blake, "Abandoned Farms 
as Homes for the Unemployed and City's Poor," New England Magazine (N.S.), 
Vol. XXIV, p. 582 



FARM MACHINERY 85 

government, social relations, and education in any degree compara- 
ble to that now common among the farming classes in this country. 1 

Consider how much lighter farm work now is than it was fifty 
years ago, before the introduction of machinery. How infinitely 
easier it must be to ride in the spring seat of a reaping machine, 
with no harder task at hand than that of keeping the horses out 
of the grain, than it would be to shuffle wearily along that same 
way, with bended back and with the perspiration springing from 
every pore, cutting an eight- or ten-foot cradle swath. And how 
much preferable to pitch sheaves to a threshing machine, or to 
work on the straw stack for a day or two, than to labor all through 
the winter months flailing and winnowing grain. 2 It is much more 
delightful to have a sulky plow, with the option to walk or to ride, 
as inclination may direct, than to be compelled to trudge all day over 
the yielding soil, till your limbs grow heavy and you stumble at 
evening when you strike the beaten pathway leading to your home. 3 

The ultimate and general effect of machinery upon farm 
laborers and, of course, upon all farm workers, has been quite 
thoroughly and pretty accurately summarized as follows: "As to 
the influence of machinery on farm labor, all intelligent expert 
observation declares it beneficial. It has relieved the laborer of 
much drudgery ; made his work easier and his hours of service 
shorter ; stimulated his mental faculties ; given an equilibrium of 
effort to mind and body ; and made the laborer a more efficient 
worker, a broader man, and a better citizen." 4 

1 The elimination of exhausting manual labor by the substitution of powerful 
machinery for puny arms has emancipated labor in our day from its hardest tasks, 
and has given to the worker both inclination and leisure for the development of 
his intellect in various ways that were impossible under former conditions. — 
A. E. Outerbridge, Jr., " Machinery and the Man," Scientific American Supple- 
ment, Vol. LI, p. 21235 

2 Threshing was then, as it remained till our time, when it has been almost 
superseded by machinery, the chief farm work of the winter. — Rogers, 
" History of Agriculture and Prices," Vol. I, p. 1 5 

3 To follow the team in the furrow, day after day, is very tiresome work and 
has the effect of giving the boy a heavy awkward gait by stiffening the lower 
limbs — a condition from which he seldom if ever recovers. — M. L. Dunlap, 
U.S. Agr. Report, 1863, p. 417 

4 J. R. Dodge, American Farm Labor, in Report of the Industrial Commission, 
1901, Vol. XI, p. in. 



86 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The work of women on the farms has been much lightened 
by machine power — not so much, however, by machines with the 
aid of which a woman does the same work as formerly, as by 
machines which have taken the work entirely from the farm, 1 as, 
for example, spinning and weaving, soap-making 2 and candle- 
making, 3 which were formerly well-accepted parts of women's 
work on the farm and generally, also, in the towns. At the 
present time, throughout probably the greater part of the country, 
cheese- and butter-making is ordinarily done away from the farm, 
and in some parts of the country, as, for instance, in North 
Dakota, even the coming of a threshing crew fails to add ma- 
terially to the work of the women on the farm, for the crews 
bring a cook- wagon and provide their own meals. 4 

Of the machines used by women on the farm, that of the 
sewing machine is, doubtless, first in importance ; the washing 
machine and the apple-paring machine are contrivances of no 
mean worth. For the rest, there may be found, instead of the 
andiron and crane, or the Dutch oven and outoven of pioneer 
times, 5 very conveniently arranged stoves and ranges ; also egg- 
beaters and can-openers and a host of other articles of which the 
housewife of fifty years ago knew nothing, not to mention incu- 
bators, milk separators, etc. The most of these things belong 
rather in the class of tools and utensils ; nevertheless, they indi- 
cate the lighter character of the work which women have now to 
do on the farms than fell to the lot of women before the era of 
machine power made such conveniences possible. 

The Influence of Machinery upon the Physical and Mental 
Nature of Man 

It may be assumed that the occupation of a man goes far 
toward determining his physical and mental health. 6 This fact 
is indeed, as I understand it, the basis of much of the argument 

1 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, p. 97. 

2 Smith, Colonial Days and Ways, pp. 69, 115. 

3 Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days, p. 35. 

' 4 Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901, Vol. X, p. 851. 

5 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. V, p. 154. 

6 Farr, Vital Statistics, pp. 394 et seq. 



FARM MACHINERY 87 

both for and against the use of machine power. So far as routine 
work is concerned, I venture to say that the evil is not inherent 
in, nor peculiar to, the use of machine power. 

The primary purpose and usual effect of the use of any ma- 
chine is the production of utilities at a less expenditure of time, 
energy, and money. 1 But this is only another way of saying that, 
when aided by machine power, a given expenditure of time, 
energy, and money will produce a greater quantity of utilities. 
Utilities are the means of satisfying wants ; and the satisfaction 
of wants is essential to life and happiness. The use of machinery, 
by supplying wants, does, therefore, one of two things : either it 
enables a larger number of persons to get a living, or it enables 
a given number " to get a better living." 2 Anyone will, I think, 
admit that the utilities supplied by machine power have not all 
been consumed in better livings. A very great part of this addi- 
tional means of satisfying wants has been devoted to the main- 
tenance of a more numerous population. That this is true must 
be self-evident when we consider how greatly the supply of utili- 
ties has been increased by the use of machinery, 3 and how utterly 
impossible it would be for the labor force now in existence, un- 
aided by machinery, to provide even the ordinary necessaries of 
life as we now count necessaries. 4 

By lightening the tasks of those who labor with their hands, 
and by increasing the quantity of the necessaries of life which 
a given amount of labor can procure, machinery has not only 
favored a higher standard of living, but has increased the chances 

1 Les outils ne sont que des machines simples et les machines ne sont que 
des outiles compliques que nous ajoutons a nos bras pour en augmenter la puis- 
sance ; et les uns et les autres ne sont, a beaucoup d'egards, que des moyens 
d'obtenir le concours des agens naturels. Leur resultat est evidemment de donner 
moins de travail pour obtenir la meme quantite d'utilite, ou, ce qui revient 
au meme, d'obtenir plus d'utilite pour la meme quantite de travail humain. — 
J. B. Say, " Traite d'economie politique,"- p. 85 

2 Powers, Labor Making Machinery, p. 27. 

3 See page 45. 

4 Selbst der Aermste hat in unserer Arbeitstheilung doch mehr zu geniessen 
als wenn er im ungeselligen Zustand lebte : die bei uns am iibelsten gestellt sind, 
Krankliche ohne Vermogen, Familienvater mit allzu vielen Kindern, etc., wiirden 
im Urwalde einfach verhungern. — Roscher, " Grundlagen der Nationaloko- 
nomie " (edition of 1900), p. 166 



88 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of attaining it. 1 Moreover, the use of machine, power has made 
it possible for many now to devote themselves wholly to intel- 
lectual pursuits without involving either the enslavement or the 
degradation of others. 2 

Looking at the question from the standpoint of the whole 
social body, there can be no other conclusion than that the use 
of machinery, by increasing the supply of utilities and by making 
utilities more accessible, 3 has opened the way to a greater number, 
not only to live and to work, 4 but to develop themselves and to 
make the most of themselves which their inherent qualities 
may allow. 

1 To-day the world obtains commodities of excellent quality at prices which 
even the preceding generation would have deemed incredible. . . . The poor enjoy 
what the rich could not before afford. What were the luxuries have become the 
necessaries of life. The laborer has more comforts than the farmer had a few 
generations ago. The farmer has more luxuries than the landlord had and is more 
richly clad and better housed. The landlord has books and pictures rarer, and 
appointments more artistic, than the king could then obtain. — Carnegie, " The 
Gospel of Wealth," p. 4 

2 If every instrument, at command, or from foreknowledge of its master's 
will, could accomplish its special work ... if the shuttle would weave, and the 
lyre play of itself ; then neither would the architect want servants, nor the master 
slaves. — Aristotle, " Politics," Bk. I, sec. 4 (translation by Edward Walford) 

3 There is no fact in modern history more easily demonstrated than that the 
products of steam-driven machinery are mainly consumed by the common people 
— the masses. — Gunton, "Principles of Social Economics," p. 147 

Quand je vous ai prouve, messieurs, que l'introduction des machines expedi- 
tives, telles que le moulin a farine, ne diminue pas les moyens d'existence de la 
classe laborieuse, et n'a que l'inconvenient, assez grave a la verite, de changer 
la nature de ses occupations, je n'ai pas completement rendu justice aux machines. 
Le fait est que, dans la plupart des cas, elles sont favorables aux ouvriers memes 
dont elles semblaient supprimer le travail. Tout procede expeditif, en reduisant 
les frais de production, met le produit a la portee d'un plus grande nombre de 
consommateurs. L'experience prouve meme que le nombre des consommateurs 
s'augmente dans une proportion bien plus rapide que la baisse du prix. — J. B. Say, 
" Cours complet d'economie politique," Vol. I, p. 193 

4 In der Behauptung, dass die Maschinen viele Arbeiter brotlos machen, liegt 
etwas Wahres aber noch mehr Irriges. In gewissen Fallen werden allerdings 
viele Arbeiter infolge einer neu eingefiihrten Maschine brotlos, aber ganz falsch 
ist die Ansicht, dass die Bevolkerung iiberhaupt durch Einfiihrung des Maschinen- 
wesens vermindert werde. Die Ausdehnung des Maschinengebrauches ist sogar 
eine der Hauptursachen der gestiegenen Bevolkerung gewesen, denn dadurch 
wurde die Erzeugung von Nahrungsmitteln, Kleidern und anderen Giitern so 
vermehrt, dass viel mehr Menschen erhalten werden konnen. Nicht bloss eine 
allgemeine Vermehrung der Bevolkerung hat in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten 



FARM MACHINERY 89 

With reference to the workers themselves, we may safely say 
that men who have worked for years with machinery are, on the 
average, quite as strong and healthy, and at least as intelligent, 
as were men employed in the same industries before machine 
power was introduced. They certainly compare most favorably, 
too, with the average workman among those who now have little 
or nothing to do with machinery. 

That routine work, which is persisted in and made one's prin- 
cipal occupation long after the worker has fully mastered it and 
developed his efficiency in that line to the limit of his capacity, 
tends to narrow the intellectual field of the worker and to depress 
his spirit may be freely admitted. The human mind is continu- 
ally opening to new wants and seeking the means of satisfying 
them. 1 In proportion, therefore, as the ambition of the individual 
worker and his capacity for accomplishing new and greater tasks 
prompt him to advance in any line of activities, just so will he 
tend to become despondent and dissatisfied and wearied with too 
long continuance in any routine employment. Under such condi- 
tions the health of the strongest worker must eventually give way. 

It is to be noticed, however, that a certain amount of routine 
is good for a person. No one ever acquires any high degree of 
skill or proficiency in any line of work until he has thoughtfully 
and systematically repeated its essential features over and over 
and made the doing of the task a habit — to be done, when 
occasion demands, with little or no thought concerning the man- 
ner of the doing. The everyday business of dressing, ourselves, 
or of walking, would involve an enormous waste of time and 
patience if we were compelled to learn anew each day ; and the 
still more common routine employment of carrying food to our 



stattgefunden, sondern auch selbst in solchen Gewerben, in welchen die Maschi- 
nenanwendung zugenommen hat, ist die Zahl der Arbeiter oft weit grosser 
geworden. — F. G. Schulze, " Nationalokonomie," Leipzig, 1856, p. 44 (quoted 
by Franz Bensing in " Der Einfluss der landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen," p. 5) 

1 It is absurd to say that human beings can produce too much of everything 
needed for the satisfaction of human desire, since the satisfaction of one desire 
but awakens a new and wider desire, and there can be no end to the demands, 
the cravings, the yearnings of the being we call man. — Henry George, Jr., 
Chicago Record- Herald, May 3, 1903 



90 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

mouths and of chewing it, always in the same old way, would 
become unbearable if routine were of itself a thing detrimental 
to the well-being of persons and always to be avoided. 

It is to be noted, also, that routine work is not confined to 
those employments which require the use of machine power. As 
a matter of fact, machines can be used to advantage only when 
the thing to be done by the machine is routine work. The tend- 
ency is, therefore, always to give over to the machine 1 the routine 
part of any work and to leave the more varied employment to the 
person in charge. The business of weaving, by the former hand 
method and by the present machine method, is a case in point. 2 
Routine work is found quite as frequently in other occupations, as 
for example, in that of bookkeeping, or of teaching music, or of 
repairing boots and shoes. It is accompanied, not infrequently, 
with heavy and exhaustive labor, as in the case of hodcarriers 
and of stonemasons. If we look to the business of many of our 
common laborers on the street, or on the railroads and canals, or 
at boat wharves, we shall find many instances of routine employ- 
ments such as the worst of machine-driven workmen not only 
would not but could not endure. 

It is not so much the fact of routine or monotony of work 
as the far more serious fact of monotony of life which depresses 
and degrades the workman. 3 The boy who is assigned lessons 



1 New machinery, when just invented, generally requires a great deal of care 
and attention. But the work of its attendant is always being sifted ; that which is 
uniform and monotonous is gradually taken over by the machine, which thus 
becomes steadily more and more automatic and self-acting, till at last there is 
nothing for the hand to do but to supply the material at certain intervals and to 
take away the work when finished. — Marshall, " Principles of Economics" 
(3d ed.), Vol. I, p. 341 

2 Nothing could be more narrow or monotonous than the occupation of a 
weaver of plain stuffs in the old time. But now one woman will manage four or 
more looms, each of which does many times as much work in the course of the 
day as the old-time hand loom did, and her work is much less monotonous and 
calls for much more judgment than his did. — Marshall, " Principles of Eco- 
nomics " (3d ed.), Vol. I, p. 342 

3 As Roscher says, it is monotony of life much more than monotony of work 
that is to be dreaded ; monotony of work is an evil of the first order only when it 
involves monotony of life. — Marshall, " Principles of Economics " (3d ed.), 
Vol. I, p. 342 



FARM MACHINERY 91 

that are too hard for him is disposed to quit his books, and he 
languishes if compelled to remain by them. On the other hand, 
if the tasks are suited to his capacity and he masters them, he 
is usually proud of his achievements and anxious to do more ; 
and if, instead of being assigned further work, he is required 
to do the same problems over and over again for, seemingly, no 
better object than that of being dutiful, he becomes dissatisfied 
and discouraged. In either case there is degradation and loss 
of power. 

The grown-up man is only an older boy. He delights to learn 
new things. He wants to be ever moving forward in the satis- 
faction of new wants ; and if for any reason, as from the con- 
sciousness that the length of the working-day or the intensity 
of his employment exacts too much for his strength or from a 
feeling that he is subject to some undue disadvantage, he finds 
that his natural powers are being overtaxed or that he cannot 
advance as rapidly as he thinks he should, he becomes dissatis- 
fied and discouraged ; and the longer he stays at his post, the 
less prepared he becomes to go into another employment. Hence 
arise the despair and abandon which lead to reckless living and, 
occasionally, to riot. 

It is idle to say that the mere fact of working with a machine 
tends to narrow the intellectual capacity of the worker. As well 
might one say that it is injurious to a pupil to give attention to 
the more skillful work of his teacher. 1 

The mere fact of working with a machine and of being com- 
pelled to follow its orderly processes tends to develop in the 
mind of the operator, unless he be a perfect blockhead, a more 
or less perfect comprehension of the plan which was in the 
mind of the inventor. From having a conscious perception of 
the purpose of the inventor to noting defects in the means 
provided for the execution of it, is a step so easy and so 
obvious that it needs no discussion here. Every such conscious 

1 It is thought that educates — the contact with quick and fertile minds ; and 
it matters not whether this contact be produced by a voice or a book or a 
machine : the result is the same. — Washington Gladden, " Working People 
and their Employers," p. 20 



92 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

perception of an inventor's plan, or purpose, and every notation of 
defect in the means provided for its execution, involves a mental 
effort and a development of intellectual power just as certainly 
as, and, frequently, with far more beneficial results than, does 
the conjugation of a Greek verb or the reading of a page from 
the JEnQid. The operator of farm machinery is especially favored 
in this respect ; x because, ordinarily he has charge of a complete 
machine and must understand it in order that he may keep it 
in repair. 2 

The simple fact that it requires the exercise of a certain degree 
of intelligence for the successful operation of a machine, together 
with the well-known fact that machine workmen continue to 
command higher wages than other workmen engaged in the 
same industries, should be conclusive evidence that the use of 
a machine does not impair the intellect of the operator. Any- 
one may be presumed to know that it requires a higher grade 
of intellect to operate a steam plow than it does to operate 
a hoe, and that the operator of the steam plow commands the 
higher wage. 

It is significant of the mutual relationship between the posses- 
sion of intellectual power and the ability to operate machinery 
that, according to the returns of the Twelfth Census, the North 

1 Wer jemals eine landwirtschaftliche Maschine in ihrer Thatigkeit beobach- 
tet und acht darauf gehabt hat, wie der Arbeiter sich drehen und wenden muss, 
wie er die grosste Aufmerksamkeit auf jede Bewegung der Maschine richten 
muss, wird zugeben, dass sie einen schadlichen Einfluss auf den geistlichen 
Zustand des Arbeiters nicht hat. Das Umgekehrte ist vielmehr der Fall. Die 
Arbeiter sind durch die Beschaftigung mit solchen Maschinen viel intelligenter 
und geschickter geworden, so dass es ihnen nicht nur moglich ist, in der Land- 
wirtschaft einen guten Verdienst zu finden, sondern auch in anderen Gewerben. 
Ihre Erwerbsthatigkeit ist mit einem Wort durch die Maschinen eine bessere und 
hohere geworden, so dass ihnen jederzeit der Ubergang von einem zum anderen 
Gewerbe ermoglicht ist. Das ist unstreitig ein Vorteil, den der landwirtschaft- 
liche Arbeiter durch die Beschaftigung mit Maschinen vor dem industriellen 
voraus hat. — Bensing, " Der Einfluss der landswirtschaftlichen Maschinen," 
p. 76 

2 On the whole the effect of the use of machinery has been to raise the intel- 
ligence and skill required on the part of those who use it, whether hired laborers 
or farm owners, and this is said to have resulted in improving the intellectual 
status of the American farmer. — Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901, 
Vol. X, p. xiv 



FARM MACHINERY 93 

Atlantic States, having 44.2 per cent of the total population of 
the country, ten years of age and over, engaged in manufactures, 
mechanic arts, trade, and transportation, reported only 15.8 per 
cent of the total number of illiterates, ten years of age and over, 
and only 27.9 per cent of the total number of deaths, occurring 
during the census year, from "injuries by machinery"; while 
the Southern States (South Atlantic and South Central divisions), 
having but 16.9 per cent of the total number, ten years of age 
and over, engaged in manufactures, mechanic arts, trade, and 
transportation, reported 66.9 per cent of the total number of 
illiterates, ten years of age and over, and 39.6 per cent of the 
total number of deaths from " injuries by machinery." 1 

It is safe to say that the people in the Southern States employ, 
relatively, even less of machinery in agriculture than they do in 
manufactures, mechanic arts, trade, and transportation. Accept- 
ing this as a fact, and bearing in mind the showing above made 
touching the matter of education and the personal injuries result- 
ing from the use of machinery, it is not difficult to concur in 
the opinion of the English writer who held that "the expense 
of ignorance is the greatest in the obstructions which it presents 
to the introduction of machinery"; that "notwithstanding the 
progress of machinery in agriculture, there is probably as much 
sound, practical, labor-saving invention and machinery unused 
as there is used ; and that it is unused solely in consequence of 
the ignorance and incompetence of the workpeople." 2 

1 For statistics of illiteracy, see Twelfth Census, Population, Vol. II, page c. 

The total number of deaths reported as resulting from " injuries by machin- 
ery " was 333 ; of these, 80 were reported from the North Atlantic States and 
132 from the South Atlantic and South Central States (Twelfth Census, Vital 
Statistics, Vol. II, Table 7). 

2 Edwin Chadwick, Esq., Journal of the Statistical Society, Vol. XXV, p. 516. 

The less general use of improved machinery in the South than in other sec- 
tions is cited in partial explanation of the slow rate of agricultural progress in 
that country and is itself explained by the lack of mechanical skill on the part of 
the negroes and by the cheapness of labor, which makes it more economical to 
employ hand labor in many operations which would be more cheaply done by 
machinery where labor is more expensive (Report of the Industrial Commission, 
1901, Vol. X, p. xiv). 



94 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The Use of Machinery and the Length of the Working-Day 

The length of the working-day is shorter now than formerly. 
This shorter working-day is, however, only very indirectly a 
consequence of the use of machinery. So far as the individual 
employer is concerned, it would be quite correct to say that the 
shorter working-day is not so much because of as in spite of 
his use of machinery. 

Every employer of labor expects to further his own interests 
by giving employment to others. Of course it may happen, and 
doubtless does happen occasionally, that men offer employment 
for the sake of the employee, but wages paid for such employ- 
ment are really charity offerings in disguise. They have no part 
in a discussion concerning the usual and everyday relations be- 
tween employers and employees. 

In like manner we may say that every employee expects, in 
return for any service which he renders, to receive a certain 
payment which shall yield him a net return of satisfaction above 
sacrifice. Not only does he expect a net return, but he expects 
a higher net return of satisfaction above sacrifice than he could 
otherwise secure. In other words, he expects that it will be 
better or more profitable for him to undertake the employment 
offered, on the terms proposed, than to decline it and, perhaps, 
continue unemployed. Unless the workman has such an expec- 
tation, he should not undertake the work. It is not only proper 1 
but most desirable that both the employer and the employee 
should have their expectations realized. 

What is the attitude of the parties with respect to each other ? 
Assuming a certain length of working-day, the position of the 
machine-using employer has been well stated by an English fac- 
tory inspector as follows : 

The quantity produced must, in the main, be regulated by the speed of the 
machinery ; it must be the interest of the mill owner to drive it at the utmost 
rate of speed consistent with these following conditions : namely, the preserva- 
tion of the machinery from too rapid deterioration ; the preservation of the 

1 In an ordinary contract both parties may, and usually do, gain by entering 
into the agreement (Amer. and Eng. Enc. of Law (2d ed.), Vol. XIV, p. 582). 



FARM MACHINERY 95 

quality of the article manufactured ; and the capability of the workman to 
follow the motion without a greater exertion than he can sustain for a 



In short, it is the interest and purpose of the employer to so 
manage his establishment that he may secure from it the highest 
net return. He is producing for a market, and the more promptly 
he can supply the demands of that market the greater are his 
chances of making a profit ; and hence the need for " the utmost 
rate of speed," and also for the most constant operation of the 
factors of production consistent with the conditions named. " The 
highest result with the least expenditure of means " 2 is the motto 
of the employer. 

One factor, the machine, can work almost continuously day and 
night ; and its efficiency is the same for the twenty-fourth hour 
as for the first hour or for any intermediate hour. Indeed, except 
as occasional stops may be requisite in order that the machine be 
kept in repair, the more continuously it is kept at work the less 
likely it is to deteriorate and the less likely it is to become 
worthless by reason of the invention of a better machine. Whether 
we consider the work of a machine for a day, for a year, or for 
its whole life-time as a producing agent, it is most effective and 
yields the highest net return to its owner when operated almost 
continuously. 

The other factor, the workman, cannot work continuously for 
any great length of time. There must be portions of each day 
given to rest and recuperation ; and the efficiency^ of the workman 
in the last hour of a long working-day is much less than in any 
other hour, unless, perhaps, in the first. In the average employ- 
ment requiring the use of little or no machinery, we may assume 
that the first hour's work of each working-day is worth less than 
that of the second, or of the third, etc. But after the sixth or 
seventh hour the workman becomes increasingly less efficient. 
Moreover, if he works beyond his strength in any one day, and 
still more, if he works beyond his strength for any considerable 
length of time, he loses vitality ; and loss of vitality, whatever 

1 See Karl Marx, Capital, p. 413. 

2 Brooks, The Social Unrest, p. 201. 



96 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

may be the determining cause, means, inevitably, the degradation 
of the workman and a permanently decreased efficiency. 1 
, The employer who is seeking the highest net return from an 
investment in labor should, therefore, if he is wise, be guided 
by a very different rule, in fixing the working-day for a man, 
from that which he should follow in fixing the length of the 
working-day for a machine. 

If the term of employment is for a day only, and fresh work- 
men can be secured for each succeeding day, it may pay the 
employer to crowd his employees to the utmost limit of their 
strength throughout, perhaps, the full twenty-four hours of the 
day. But if the term of employment is for a year, or for life, 
with no chance of getting a substitute, then it will, ordinarily, 2 
pay an employer to be more saving of his employees' vitality. 
He must now look to the preservation of the health and strength 
of his employees for the longer period of employment. It is 
only in this way that the employer can secure the highest net 
return on his investment. We know, however, that employers 
are sometimes both unwise 3 and unscrupulous, 4 and that even 

1 Walker, Wages, pp. 81-88. 

2 Slave-labor, under an intelligent profit monger, may require provision to 
be made for a full working life, though even in slavery it may sometimes pay to 
use up a slave by intense toil during a shorter period. — John A. Hobson, " The 
Economies of Distribution," p. 162 

3 I challenge the assumption which underlies the orthodox doctrine of wages ; 
namely, the sufficiency of the sense of self-interest. Mankind, always less wise, 
and too often foolish to the point of stupidity, on the one side, and of fanaticism, 
on the other, whether in government, in domestic life, in the care of their 
bodies, or in the care of their souls, do not suddenly become wise in industrial 
concerns. The argument for keeping a laborer well applies with equal force to 
the maintenance of a slave. — Francis A. Walker, " Wages," p. 58 

It shocks us to-day to hear the allegation that slave owners once discussed in 
convention the expediency of using a slave up in six years or four years in a 
certain occupation, and decided that it " paid " to use him up in four. — Ely, 
"Outlines of Economics," p. 182 

4 Certainly, it seldom happens that anyone in the position of a monopolist with 
respect to the purchase of labor power will look ahead for years and ask, Is not 
the course I am pursuing likely to diminish the labor supply ? We do not find any 
action on the part of the purchaser of labor power which would indicate that this is 
the case. Take the example of the sweater and his victims. We do not find that 
he is held back from exercising his full power over them by the fear that he will 
cut off the future supply of labor power. He thinks that it will be forthcoming 



FARM MACHINERY 97 

in cases of employment for long periods employers will, not in- 
frequently, discount the future at too high a rate and overwork 
their employees. The temptation to do this way is especially 
strong when free laborers are employed, because the services of 
a freeman are not ordinarily paid for in advance and for the 
whole period of possible employment, as in the purchase of a 
slave, but day by day, or month by month, and the death or 
total disability of the freeman relieves the employer from paying 
for the latter portion of the stipulated term, that is, for that por- 
tion of the term when the overworked laborer is least efficient. 
Moreover, except as provided for by the employer's liability acts, 
the employer of free labor has no financial interest in the wel- 
fare of a workman after the stipulated period of service is in 
any way terminated. Ambitious men will even overwork them- 
selves. It is too much to expect that they should, voluntarily, 
be more solicitous for the welfare of their employees. 

We have now to inquire concerning the effect of yoking to- 
gether the machine and labor factors — the one yielding the 
highest net return when worked almost incessantly, either for 
short or for long terms of employment ; the other yielding the 
highest net return when worked for longer or shorter periods, 
according to the length of the term of employment, but always, 
unless in the case of employment for a single day, when con- 
siderable portions of each day are allowed for rest and recuper- 
ation. It is like harnessing together a racer and a plow horse. 
From the standpoint of the employer, the machine and labor 
factors do not work in harmony. Under any conditions the em- 
ployer is interested in getting as much service as possible from 
his employee and, when using machinery, is constantly impelled, 
according to the amount of his investment in the machine factor, 1 
to spur on the labor factor to a longer working-day. 

from some source ; but even if not, he thinks, Before the supply dries up I will 
reap my harvest ; I will make my fortune. — Ely, " Monopolies and Trusts," p. 132 
1 As machinery became more and more costly, the length of the working-day 
was lengthened until it became, even for women and children, sixteen and eighteen 
hours in cases not rare. Indeed, it has been generally longer where women and 
children have been the predominating labor force, because they are less powerful 
to resist oppression. — Ely, " Labor Movement in America," p. 109 



98 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The position of the employee is radically different from that 
of the employer. When making a contract for the sale of his 
labor power, the employee does not seek to establish a long 
working-day. He wants a certain amount of exercise, and he 
may even be glad to do some work for the pleasure which comes 
of achievement, but a long working-day, or a day of intense or 
otherwise exhaustive toil, is not desired. Not infrequently the 
employee assumes a position antagonistic to the interests of his 
employer. There remains, therefore, a wide margin within which 
the interests of employers and employees are adverse to each 
other ; and the immediate effect of the introduction of machinery 
is rather to widen that area than to narrow it. 

It would doubtless be impossible to enumerate all of the causes 
which have operated to give a shorter working-day in the more 
recent years. Public opinion has doubtless had some influence in 
this direction ; but, for the most part, the various causes have found 
expression in, and have operated through, factory and labor laws. 

Just how far the legislation thus far enacted in behalf of em- 
ployees has operated to give farm laborers a shorter working-day 
it would, doubtless, be impossible to say. That the farm laborers 
have, in some degree, profited by such legislation may be fairly 
inferred from the testimony presented before the recent Industrial 
Commission and summarized in the report of that commission as 
follows : " Returns relative to the hours of daily service show the 
influence of general labor agitation for shorter hours in shorten- 
ing the day of rural service. The reduction is very general, and 
greater where industrial and mechanical enterprise is dominant." 1 

It is to be expected, however, that the .working-day should be 
longer on the farms than in the factories, for the outdoor life and 
more varied nature of the employment promotes health and makes 
it possible for farm workmen to continue their work through a 
given period with, relatively, much less cost of vitality. 

That this is true will appear fairly evident from a consideration 
of the following table taken from Dr. Amos G. Warner's work 
on " American Charities." 2 

1 Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901, Vol. XI, p. 82. 

2 Warner, American Charities, p. 107. 



FARM MACHINERY 



99 



NUMBER LIVING AT STATED AGES OUT OF 1000 LIVING 
AT AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE 



■45 



Farmer * . 
Shoemaker 
Weaver 
Grocer . . 
Blacksmith 
Carpenter 
Tailor . . 
Laborer . 
Miner . . 
Baker . . 
Butcher . 
Innkeeper 



920.3 

9 2 3-7 
918.8 

905-5 
883.7 
902.1 

9i5-i 
924.1 
887.0 
861.7 



521.19 
812.45 
822.78 
826.68 
804.84 
812.18 
758.17 

789-35 

810.79 

787-35 
740.64 
684.99 



730.06 
690.65 
696.04 
696.02 
672.02 
676.58 
631.58 
652.85 
646.97 
620.51 
5 6 9-47 
49 I - I 3 



639-54 
591.64 
581.20 
617.38 
547.02 
576.38 
544.10 

557-5 1 
535-69 
518.04 

45Mi 
395-38 



As a matter of fact, the length of the working-day, the condi- 
tions under which work shall be done, and the wages to be paid 
in any industry are questions which must all, ultimately, be de- 
termined by economic law 2 and, to a very large extent, inde- 
pendently for each industry according to the nature of the work 
to be done and according to the character of the workers. But 
the economic law by which they are to be determined is not 
necessarily the economic law which is most favorable to employers, 
or to employees, or even to the interest of employers and em- 
ployees jointly considered, any more than the policy of our federal 



1 The farmers and agricultural laborers are at present among the healthiest 
classes of the population classified according to occupation. The young farmer 
for some reason or other suffers a higher mortality than the laborer ; but at 
thirty-five and upward the British farmer enjoys comforts which are beyond the 
reach of the laborers. — Farr, "Vital Statistics," p. 403 

2 If men can produce as much or nearly as much in eight hours as they can 
in ten, eight hours is destined to become the working-day ; otherwise, not. The 
owner of a stoneyard in Chicago has stated that his men could do as much work 
in eight hours as in ten hours. Their work is fatiguing and little or nothing is 
gained by working the men. over eight hours. Eight hours was the day's labor 
in that yard, and the owner said so far as his business was concerned the eight- 
hour question had solved itself. — Powers, " Labor Making Machinery," p. 33 



100 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

government is to be determined by the civil law most favorable to 
any particular state or section of the Union. Such questions are 
to be determined by that economic law which is most favorable 
to the whole social body, — to the State, — to humanity. 1 



1 Ausgangspunkt, wie Zielpunkt unserer Wissenschaft ist der Mensch. — 
Roscher, " Grundlagen der Nationalokonomie," p. i. 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES, AND OUR FUTURE 
FOOD SUPPLY 

By Professor G. F. Warren, Cornell University 
(From Bulletin 341, College of Agriculture, Cornell University) 

THE questions, whether our soil is exhausted and how we 
are to be fed in the future, are constantly being discussed in 
newspapers and magazines. The wildest sorts of statements are 
being made. Statistics are so persistently misquoted and misused 
that wrong impressions or absolute untruths are often accepted. 
The farmer is blamed for not selling enough food, and in the 
next breath is condemned for allowing any plant food to leave his 
farm. Many public-spirited citizens are planning all manner of 
solutions for existing conditions, sometimes with an entire mis- 
conception of what such conditions are. In the midst of all the 
excited discussion, it is well to stop long enough to examine the 
available facts and find out where we stand. There are two, and 
only two, sources of information on crop yields, the United States 
Census Reports and the reports by the Bureau of Statistics of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. 

CROP YIELDS 

Crop yields in the United States. The crop yields for the 
United States as reported by the census are given in Table 1 . Of 
the six major crops, three gave their highest yield at the last census 
period and three had given a better yield at some previous period. 

* * # * * * * * * * 

Crop yields east of the Mississippi River. When crop yields 
for the entire United States are compared, the land considered in 
1909 is different from that farmed in 1879. During that period, 



102 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



TABLE 1. CROP YIELDS PER ACRE IN THE UNITED STATES, 
FROM THE CENSUS REPORTS 



1899 



Major crops 

Corn (bushels) 

Wheat (bushels) 

Oats (bushels) 

Potatoes (bushels) 

Hay and forage (tons) 

Cotton (bales) 

Minor crops 

Tobacco (pounds) 

Barley (bushels) 

Buckwheat (bushels) 

Rye (bushels) 

Rice (bushels) 

Sweet potatoes and yams (bushels) 

Hops (pounds) 

Flax (bushels) 

Kafir corn and millo maize (bushels) 

Dry edible beans (bushels) .... 

Sugar beets (tons) 

Sugar cane (tons) 

Sorghum cane (tons) 

Dry peas (bushels) 

Peanuts (bushels) 

Strawberries (quarts) ....... 

Blackberries and dewberries (quarts) 

Raspberries and loganberries (quarts) 

Cranberries (quarts) 

Currants (quarts) 

Gooseberries (quarts) 

Broom corn (pounds) 

Hemp (pounds) . 

Chicory (pounds) 

Mint (pounds) 



28.1 
13.0 
25-3 

i-i-5 

0.40 

740 
22.0 

i3-9 
10.8 

22.7 

75-o 
567.2 



29.4 

i3-9 
28.6 
83.6 
1.26 
o-37 

702 
24-3 
14-5 
J3- 1 
28.7 
83.8 

780.1 
7.8 



412.7 
1,030.4 



28.1 
12.5 
3 r -9 
93-o 
1.28 

o-39 



26.8 

13-9 
12.4 
26.3 
79.1 
884.9 

9-5 
19.4 
n. 2 

7.2 
10.9 

6.5 

9-7 
23.2 
1,701 
1,239 
1,258 
i»552 
i ? 445 
1,380 

509-3 
73 2 4 
7,004 
21.8 



2 5-9 

154 

28.6 

106.1 

i-35 

o-33 

815 

22.5 

16.9 

i34 

35-8 

92.4 
911. 1 

94 

10.8 

14.0 

10.8 

i3-i 
3-7 
5-5 



1,129 

1,252 
2,075 

1.329 
1,109 
242.1 
978.6 
12,136 
i9-3 



large areas of arid land were brought into cultivation. The aver- 
age yields on this new land are lower than those in the older 
states. Hence the yields of later years are lowered, not by the 
exhaustion of the soils in the older states, but by the addition of 
new land with low yields. It is therefore misleading to quote the 



CROP YIELDS AND' PRICES 



103 



decrease in yield per acre of corn and attribute this decrease to 
soil exhaustion in the older states. 

The only fair way of making a comparison is to consider the 
same region for each census period. Table 2 shows a comparison 
for the most important crops in states east of the Mississippi 
River. In this region the best crops of corn, wheat, potatoes, and 
hay ever produced were in 1909. The best yields of oats and 
cotton were in the year 1899, with 1909 second. 

TABLE 2. CROP YIELDS PER ACRE IN STATES EAST OF THE 
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, FROM THE CENSUS REPORTS 



1879 



1SS 1 .) 



1899 



1909 



Corn (bushels) . . . 
Wheat (bushels) . . 
Oats (bushels) . . . 
Potatoes (bushels) . . 
Hay and forage (tons) 
Cotton (bales) . . . 



25.6 
14.1 
24.2 

1.08 
o-37 



25.6 
14-3 

27-5 
81.6 
1.24 

o-35 



27.2 
11.9 
32.6 
90.7 
1. 17 
o-39 



28.0 
15.8 

2 9-5 
108.4 
1.29 
°-39 



A still more accurate comparison is shown in Table 3. The 
states east of the Mississippi River are here grouped in five 
divisions and those west of the Mississippi in four divisions. . . . 

A better method of comparing yields is on the basis of the 
reports by the Bureau of Statistics. The census figures are more 
accurate, but the census is taken only once in ten years. The 
crops vary from year to year, chiefly because of variation in rain- 
fall. The census figures are therefore dependent on whether the 
year is one of good or poor crops. 

The estimates published by the Bureau of Statistics are avail- 
able for every year since 1866. At the present time these esti- 
mates are based on reports from every county in the United States 
that is of any agricultural importance. There are approximately 
32,000 persons who send in crop reports. The yields per acre of 
the important crops are estimated with a fair degree of accuracy. 
The yield per acre of the corn crop of 1909 was 2 per cent less 
than that indicated by the census report ; that of cotton was 3 per 
cent less. The estimated yield per acre of wheat was 2 per cent 
too high, for oats 6 per cent, and for potatoes 1 per cent too high. 



104 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



TABLE 3. CROP YIELDS PER ACRE BY GROUPS OF STATES, 
FROM THE CENSUS REPORTS 







Corn 


Wheat 


Oats 


Hay and 


Cotton 
(In bales) 


Potatoes 






(In 
bushels) 


(In 
bushels) 


(In 
bushels) 


Forage 
(In tons) 


(In 
bushels) 


States East of the 
















Mississippi River 
















New England 


1879 


34-5 


15-5 


3 2 7 


O.96 




109 


Maine, N. H., Vt., 


1889 


38.6 


19.I 


3°7 


I.09 




85 


Mass., R. I., Conn. 


1899 


394 


18.0 


35-9 


i-i3 




130 




1909 


45-3 


23-5 


3 2 -9 


1.23 




177 


Middle Atlantic 


1879 


33- 1 


14.1 


28.5 


1. 10 




95 


N.Y., N.J., Pa. 


1889 


32.8 


16.7 


27.4 


1.29 




70 




1899 


34-o 


14.9 


3o-9 


1. 19 




95 




1909 


32.2 


18.6 


25-5 


1.32 




107 


East North Central 


1879 


34-6 


16.8 


31.8 


1. 17 






Ohio, Ind., 111., 


1889 


34-3 


157 


34-5 . 


1.30 




91 


Mich., Wis. 


1899 


38-3 


12.9 


374 


1.22 




85 




1909 


38.6 


17.2 


33-3 


1.38 




101 


South Atlantic 


1879 


13-3 


8.8 


9.9 


0.84 


o-35 




Del.,Md.,D.C, Va., 


1889 


13-7 


10.3 


10.8 


1.09 


°-35 


70 


W.Va., N.C., S.C., 


1899 


14.1 


9-5 


11.7 


1.02 — 


o-39 


77 


Ga., Fla. 


1909 


15.8 


11.9 


15-5 


1.02 + 


0.45 


92 


East South Central 


1879 


19.1 


77 


10.3 


0.82 


°-39- 




Ky., Tenn., Ala., 


1889 


20.7 


10.6 


12. 1 


1.06 


o-35 


81 * 


Miss. 


1899 


18.4 


9.0 


1 1.1 


1.03 + 


0.39 + 


63 




1909 


18.6 


11.7 


i34 


1.03 


0.32 


82 


States West of the 
















Mississippi River 
















West North Central 


1879 


37-4 


10.6 


28.9 


1.32 






Minn., Iowa, Mo., 


1889 


364 


13.2 


3o-9 


1.26 




90 


N. Dak., S. Dak., 


1899 


314 


12.2 


32.0 


i-34 




95 


Neb., Kans. 


1909 


27.7 


14.9 


27-5 


1-33 




92 


West South Central 


1879 


14.0 


6.6 


17.0 


0.83 


0.47 




Ark., La., Okla., Tex. 


1889 


20.9 


10.6 


20.2 


i-35 


0.41 


73 




1899 


21.9 


Il.q 


25.8 


1.48 


o-39 


67 




1909 


157 


11.0 


21.4 


1.03 


0.27 


63 


Mountain 


1879 


16.6 


18.8 


28.9 


I - I 3 






Mont., Idaho, Wyo., 


1889 


14.4 


20.0 


27.8 


1.36 




69 


Colo., N. Mex., Ariz., 


1899 


16.5 


19.2 


3°4 


i-59 




"3 


Utah, Nev. 


1909 


15.8 


23.1 


34-9 


173 




!43 


Pacific 


1879 


27.1 


16.3 


30-5 


i4S 






Wash., Ore., Cal. 


1889 


30.2 


15.0 


28.4 


1.49 




95 




1899 


25.2 


15.6 


3i4 


1.44 




129 




1909 


24.0 


17.7 


35-3 


173 




131 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 



105 



TABLE 4. COMPARATIVE CROP YIELDS, FROM REPORTS OF THE 
BUREAU OF STATISTICS. CORN, WHEAT, OATS, BARLEY, RYE, 
BUCKWHEAT, POTATOES, HAY. THE YIELD OF 1866 CON- 
SIDERED AS 100 PER CENT 



Year 



United States 

(Percentage of 

1866 crop) 



States East of the 

Mississippi River 

(Percentage of 

1866 crop) 



1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 

1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 

1886 

1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 

1893 
1894 
1895 

1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 

1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 
1911 
1912 



100 
100 
104 
108 
109 
109 
112 
101 

94 
109 

100 
112 

"5 
116 
no 

86 
104 
100 
107 

99 

96 

9i 

101 

108 

89 

112 

99 

97 

93 

105 

109 
107 
116 
108 
105 
96 
119 
in 
114 
123 

123 
109 
112 

ii5 

113 

97 

126 



100 

99 
102 
102 
109 
107 
in 
93 
95 
106 

99 
no 
112 
118 
114 

86 
104 
100 

99 

94 

96 

89 

107 

102 



107 
96 
96 

102 



104 
107 
117 
103 
101 
97 
116 
105 
in 
121 

120 
"3 
113 
"5 
121 
no 
120 



io6 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Table 4 shows the comparative yields of corn, wheat, oats, bar- 
ley, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, and hay, for every year since 1866. 
Each crop was compared with its 1866 yield as 100 per cent. 
These percentages were then averaged in order to get the per- 
centage yield for each year. If one crop had more acreage than 
another, it is given proportionately more weight in determining 
the average. The figures are what is known as a weighted aver- 
age. 1 This is the fairest possible way of comparing the yield of 
different acres, since it gives every acre equal weight. 

The chart on page 107 shows the comparative yields for states 
east of the Mississippi River. This curve shows a period of general 
low production during the eighties and the early nineties. During 
that period prices were low and farmers were having hard times. 
Since 1896 the yields in these states have only once dropped 
below the 1866 crop; that was in the very dry year of 1 901. 
Never before have the eastern states shown such high yields as 
in the last eight years considered. In four of these years the 
crops have been better than ever before produced. In every year 
the crops have been good. 

Why are crop yields increasing ? The writer does not believe 
that changes in crop yields can be taken as a measure of soil 



1 The method of calculating the comparative crop yields, or the crop index, is 
best shown by an example : 



Acres Grown 
in 1912 



Comparative 

Yield per Acre 

(1866 yield as 

100 per cent) 



Acres 

multiplied by 

Percentage 

Yield 



Corn . . 
Wheat . 
Oats . . 
Barley . 
Rye . . 
Buckwheat 
Potatoes 
Hay . . 

Total 



[07,083,000 

45,814,000 

37,917,000 

7,530,000 

2,117,000 

841,000 

3,711,000 

49,530,000 



"5 

161 
124 
130 
124 
105 

JI 3 
120 



254,543,00° 



123,145,450 

73,760,540 

47,017,080 

9,789,000 

2,625,080 

883,050 

4,193,430 

59,436,000 



320,849,630 



Percentage yield, or crop index == 



320,849,630 
2 54,543,ooo 



126 per cent 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 



107 



fertility. If so, then we must conclude that the longer land is 
farmed the richer it gets, because the Atlantic Coast states show 
the largest increase in crop yields. The striking increase is due to 
the better returns that crops now bring. Every farmer knows 
many ways of increasing his crops. Whenever prices rise, more 
fertilizers and better methods are used. In the states east of the 



120 



115 



110 



a 
<105 



z 
ui 
o 
a. 
ui 
o-lOO 




95 



90 



1866 1870 



1.880 



1890 



1900 



1910 



Comparative Crop Yields in States East of the Mississippi River. Yields of 
1866 considered as 100 Per Cent 



Mississippi River, in 1899, the average expenditure for fertilizer 
was 36 cents per acre of crops. In 1909 it was 78 cents. 

Probably much more important than the expenditure for fer- 
tilizer is the increased attention that is being given to the care 
and use of farm manure. Methods of tillage also have been im- 
proved. Much land has been drained, so that wet spots which 
once lowered the average yield are now raising it. 

It is certainly very unsafe to draw conclusions from crop yields 
as to whether our soils are running out. The yields are increas- 
ing, whatever the cause. 



108 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Crop possibilities. There are many ways in which it is possi- 
ble to increase crops. There is much good land that is not now 
being used, but that will be used as soon as prices make it worth 
while. The use of more fertilizers, the better use of manure, and 
other methods of more careful farming are rapidly coming in as 
prices make it worth while. 

There are millions of acres of good farm land in swamps, which 
we will farm as soon as we are convinced that it will pay to drain 
them. Shaler estimates that there are 3,000,000 acres of reclaim- 
able seacoast marshland along the Atlantic coast of the United 
States. 

There are other millions of acres on farms, made up of smaller 
areas from fractions of acres to large marshes, which are gradually 
being reclaimed. On the vast majority of American farms there 
are areas of land that can be brought into cultivation when prices 
warrant the work. In total, this is far more important than re- 
claiming the large swamps. 

The writer made a study of 13 farms, containing 1060 acres, 
near Ithaca. On these farms nearly 210 acres of land are still in 
woods or stumps that will make excellent farm land when cleared. 
This land is just as good as any of the present cleared land. This 
is in addition to woodland that must be kept permanently in 
woods. During the past three years, on these farms, 17 acres of 
previously waste wet land and 63 acres of woodland have been 
turned into pasture, and 44 acres of pasture land and 7 acres of 
previously waste land have been taken for crops. This example is 
typical of the state. Probably more brush lines along fences and 
wet places have been reclaimed in New York in the last five years 
than in the preceding twenty-five years. Prices in New York are 
usually not high enough to justify one in clearing land all at once, 
but woodland and brush-land can be turned into pasture and be 
ready to clear cheaply in about twenty years, after the stumps have ' 
partly rotted. In this way the saving in cost of clearing may equal 
the value as pasture, and the two usually pay better than clearing 
at once by expensive methods. 

The above conditions are typical not only of New York, but 
also of most of the farms in the eastern states. At the same 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 



109 



TABLE 5. AVERAGE WHOLESALE PRICES IN CITIES, 1840-1912 





03 


£ 


•&n 


i 

co 

e^ 

CD — " 
O CU 

CO 

_ 3 
^-° 
CU 

_o 

2 


CO 


^O 


CU 


- — . CD 


TD 


c 


3 ^g 




c 
u 



II 
P 
.. ft 

E 


CU 
4= 

CO 

« 3 

CU O 


S ° 
■it- 

2^ 


C 
CU 

> % 

&42 

CO 


-a 
a 
3 

0. 



CD 

ft, 

CO 


E 

"ft? 
S § 

T3 O 

C ft 

la 


£ft 

O 
43 CO 

S.-3 

33 » 

S" c 

ftS 

(U cj 


a 

3 

ft 

ft 

CO 

3 
CU 

u 

CD 




N 
O " 

O 
ft 

CO 

C 

CU 



CO 

to 


w*i 2 
u c 
cj cu M 

ftll^ 

2 uSft 

E cu 


fi> 





£ 


o-S 





t3 


O 


CD 


D 


bo 


> 3 


> 





U=3 


ft 





M 




wU 






o^-S 


1840 . . 


57 


$1.12 


8.9 




36 


$4-4i 


$3-71 




16.O 




75 


1841 




60 


1. 18 


9-5 




45 


4-75 


3.82 




17 


1 




81 


1842 




61 


1. 17 


7-9 




40 


4.14 


3-24 




17 


6 




75 


1843 




54 


I.04 


7-3 




30 


4-33 


3-28 


I.I 


r 4 


8 




63 


1844 




50 


O.97 


7-7 




32 


4-5° 


3-23 


1.6 


17 


6 




63 


1845 




51 


O.99 


5-6 




37 


4.00 


3-42 




16 







67 


1846 




6S 


1. 12 


7-9 




4 1 


4-53 


3-64 




16 


5 




77 


1847 




84 


1.38 


11. 2 




46 


5-34 


4-13 


1.2 


18 


4 




86 


1848 




63 


1-33 


8.0 




43 


5.14 


4.10 


i-5 


i7 


3 




78 


1849 




61 


1.23 


7.6 




36 


4.88 


4.72 




17 


8 




80 


1850 




61 


1.30 


12.3 




43 


4.06 


4.41 




16 


8 




84 


1851 




63 


1.09 


12. 1 


73 


44 


4-8 3 


4-45 


2-3 


16 


8 




85 


1852 




66 


1.1 1 


9-5 


64 


45 


5-44 


4.90 


1.8 


21 


3 




85 


1853 




7i 


1.36 


11. 


47 


48 


5-97 


5-46 


3-i 


21 


3 




93 


1854 




77 


2.00 


11. 


98 


53 


5-34 


5-43 


3-6 


l 9 


9 




109 


1855 




94 


2.30 


10.4 


93 


59 


5-66 


6.09 


3-9 


23 


1 




119 


1856 




69 


1.76 


10.3 


59 


45 


6-53 


5-95 


3-o 


21 


4 




99 


1857 




73 


1.58 


13-5 


100 


53 


6.88 


6.23 


2.8 


23 


1 


16.9 


107 


1858 




68 


1. 17 


12.2 


79 


47 


5-23 


5.04 


2.0 


19 


6 


16.0 


88 


1859 




86 


1.46 


12. 1 


58 


5i 


5-59 


5-78 


2.8 


20 


8 


20.9 


98 


i860 




73 


1.38 


11. 


49 


42 


6.28 


5-46 


3-6 


18 


8 


17.4 


9i 


1861 




59 


1.28 


13.0 


48 


34 


4.67 


5.08 


3-4 


IS 


4 


14.4 


81 


1862 




59 


i-3i 


3i-3 


45 


45 


4-03 


5-" 


3-4 


18 


5 


15.8 


96 


1863 




83 


1.52 


67.2 


50 


74 


5-i6 


5-85 


4-5 


23 


3 


20.8 


142 


1864 




144 


1.99 


.101. 5 


88 


92 


9-54 


8.20 


5.6 


38 


6 


26.3 


210 


1865 




124 


2.05 


8 3 -4 


76 


83 


12.69 


.9-94 


6.8 


39 


3 


29.4 


205 


1866 




88 


2.30 


43-2 


7i 


54 


10.59 


9.21 


5-6 


44 


4 


28.4 


162 


1867 




117 


2.84 


3i-6 


71 


70 


7-3D 


9-°3 


5-i 


32 


6 


27.4 


155 


1868 




120 


2. 4 6 


24.9 


102 


81 


8.91 


9-38 


4-7 


43 


3 


32.1 


164 


1869 




100 


1. 18 


29.0 


70 


74 


10.27 


8-93 


3-9 


4i 


4 


3i-3 


i45 


1870 




99 


i-3i 


24.0 


76 


60 


9-5o 


9.14 


4.1 


34 


6 


3i-3 


i37 


1871 




77 


1.60 


17.0 


102 


62 


5-i3 


7-63 


3-5 


32 


3 


25.0 


121 


1872 




70 


1.62 


20.5 


49 


49 


4-3i 


6.89 


4.9 


29 


4 


26.3 


in 


1873 




63 


1.76 


18.2 


83 


48 


4.46 


6.63 


4 .8 


30 





28.0 


"5 


1874 




85 


1.46 


17.0 


87 


59 


5.60 


6.51 


4 .8 


33 





28.0 


121 


1875 




82 


i-33 


15.0 


70 


63 


7.48 


6.84 


4.9 


3° 


3 


25.8 


119 


1876 




63 


i-35 


13.0 


47 


44 


6.94 


5.8i 


4.8 


30 


9 


22.9 


103 


1877 




58 


1.63 


11. 7 


88 


42 


5-55 


6.07 


4-5 


27 


1 


21. 1 


104 


1878 




53 


1.25 


"-3 


49 


33 


3.84 


5-23 


3-9 


27 


1 


16.9 


85 


1879 




47 


1.17 


10.8 


78 


34 


3-44 


5.08 


4.0 


22 


4 


18.O 


85 


1880 




55 


1.30 


12.0 


47 


42 


4.61 


4.88 


4-7 


29 


3 


16,9 


91 


1881 




62 


i-3i 


ii-3 


69 


45 


5-93 


6.20 


4.9 


28 


6 


22.2 


103 


1882 




76 


1.32 


12.2 


93 


54 


6.00 


7.18 


5-o 


33 


6 


22.9 


116 


1883 




64- 


1. 16 


10.6 


68 


44 


6.i 7 


6.53 


4-7 


28 


5 


23-4 


102 


1884 




61 


1. 00 


10.6 


49 


36 


5-54 


6.63 


4.8 


28 





22.9 


95 


1885 




52 


0.94 


10.5 


46 


37 


4.24 


5-78 


4.1 


23 


8 


19-3 


84 


1886 




47 


0.89 


9.4 


64 


39 


4.09 


5-76 


4 .6 


27 


3 


19-3 


I 7 


1887 




49 


0.88 


10.3 


61 


37 


4.89 


5.19 


4-5 


24 


6 


2I.O 


87 


1888 




59 


0.94 


10.3 


78 


36 


5-65 


5.67 


4-7 


25 


1 


20.8 


tt 


1889 




43 


0.92 


10.7 


57 


29 


4.68 


4-65 


4.8 


23 


9 


i8. 7 


1890 




44 


0.92 


"■5 


9i 


34 


3-95 


4.96 


4.8 


21 


8 


19.0 


88 


1891 




67 


1.06 


9.0 


93 


46 


4.42 


5-55 


4-7 


23 


8 


20.9 


97 


1892 




55 


0.79 


7.6 


45 


36 


5.16 


4-5o 




23 


5 


19. 1 


77 


1893 




46 


0.69 

0.58 


8.2 


67 


34 


6-55 


4.84 




25 


2 


21. 1 


84 


1894 . . 


57 


7-7 


61 


35 


4-97 


4.52 




20.9 


16.4 


76 



no READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

TABLE 5. AVERAGE WHOLESALE PRICES IN CITIES, 1840-1912 

(Continued) 



13 


- co 

a ■ 

n 
p 





u u 
<u 




ft 
CO 

CO 


Ph 


£-55 

10 

O 


C 

O 
& 

8 

m 

w 

S) 
O 


S 
ft-3 

S§ 



boo 

^3 
<u 

<D 


• • t-, 

y .. u 

D n, 
U l "" 

IS 
" C 

1-1 

ft £ 

&£ 

tflU 


c 

g 
ft 
u 

<U 
ft 
CO 

pq 


ci 

<L> 
N 
O 

CO 

bD 

H 


Comparative prices n 
(average for seventy- 
three years equals 100 
per cent) 


l8 9 5 
1896 

1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 

1905 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 
1911 
1912 




40 
29 
31 
37 
41 
46 
56 

68 
56 
56 
57 
54 
62 
7i 
76 

65 
66 
76 


$0.70 
0.78 
0.97 
0.96 
0.80 
0.81 
0.80 
0.84 
0.86 

1.03 
0.87 
0.96 
1.05 
1.25 
1. 12 
0.97 
1.09 


6.3 

7-9 

7-2 

6.0 
6.6 
9.6 
8.6 
8.9 
11. 2 
12. 1 
9.6 
n. 
11.9 
10.5 
12. 1 

i5-i 
13.0 
"•5 


43 
20 
33 
51 
42 

37 
56 
60 
52 
73 
40 
55 
49 
71 
69 

43 
77 
91 


25 
23 
23 
30 
31 
27 
37 
45 
41 
42 

35 
38 
49 
54 
5i 

47 
46 

57 


$4.28 
3-36 

3-59 
3.81 
4.04 
5.08 
5.96 
6.97 
6.06 
5.16 

5-29 
6.24 
6.08 
5.80 
7-57 
8.94 

6-75 
7.60 


$4-93 
4.27 
4-77 
4.88 

5-39 
5-39 
5-59 
6.56 
5.06 
5-i9 
5.22 
5-36 
5.8i 
6.00 
6-45 
7.02 
6-73 
8.40 


3-i 
3-8 
3-9 

3-8 

3-7 
3-3 
3-8 
3-8 
3-7 
4.6 
4.6 
4-7 
4.1 
4.4 

4-7 
3-4 

3-8 


18.8 
16.7 
16.8 
17-5 
19.7 

21.2 
20.1 
23.2 
21. s 
19.7 

23-4 
23-3 
26.7 
24-5 
26.5 

29.1 
25-7 
30.0 


16.6 
15-4 
i5-5 
16.3 
19-3 
17. 1 
18.9 
22.6 
23.2 
24.8 
26.0 
23-9 
26.5 
26.5 
30.6 
32.8 
29.9 
33-i 


66 
59 
65 
71 
73 

75 
82 
95 
88 
92 
88 

I02 
III 
112 
104 
119 


73-yr. av 


66 


$1.25 


15-4 


65 


45 


$5-7i 


$5-74 


4.0 


24.4 


22.6 





1 The prices of corn for 1840 to 1891 are from "Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Trans- 
portation," 52 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Report 1394, Pt. 2, p. 7. The price for each year is the 
average of the average prices for January, April, July, and October. The prices for 1892 to 
1912 are for " No. 2 corn" (U.S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1896, p. 579 ; 1900, p. 760 ; 1905, 
p. 662 ; 1909, p. 441 ; 1912, p. 563). The price for each year from 1892 to 1896 is the aver- 
age of the average prices for August, September, October, November, and December. The 
prices for later years are for all months. In all cases in which monthly prices are given, the 
average of the high and the low is taken as the price for that month. The yearly average 
is the average of the monthly averages. Most of the corn sold is graded as No. 2. The 
months given are typical, so that the prices are comparable. 

2 Prices of wheat are from the references given in footnote 1 and are calculated by the 
method there given. Winter wheat, 1840 to 1891, Senate Report, p. 63. 1892 to 1912 is 
No. 2 red winter (U.S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1896, p. 580; 1900, p. 771 ; 1905, p. 673; 

i9°9, P- 453! i9 I2 > P-575)- 

3 Cotton prices are from U.S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Statistics, Bulletin 9; U.S. Dept. 
Labor, Bulletin 114, p. 93. 

4 Potato prices are for Boston from 185 1 to 1891, from Senate Report mentioned in 
footnote 1, p. 118. Prices 1892 to 1912 are for "fair to fancy" potatoes in Chicago, from 
U.S. Dept. Labor, Bulletin 114, p. 108. Potatoes average a little higher in Chicago than in 
New York. 

5 Prices of oats are from the reference given in footnote 1 and are calculated by the 
method there given (Senate Report, p. 32). Prices 1892 to 1912 are for No. 2 mixed 
(U.S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1896, p. 581 ; 1900, p. 779 ; 1905, p. 680; 1909, p. 465 ; 1912, 
p. 588). As in the case of corn and wheat, most of the product sold is graded as No. 2, 
hence the figures for different years are comparable. 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES in 

time there is much land that is not worth farming that should be 
reforested, but not much of this is in crops at the present time. 
We still have much undeveloped land, but not of the kind that 
was opened in the Central West. We must now work for our 
new land and must be willing to pay the corresponding prices for 
the products. 

PRICES OF FARM PRODUCTS 

Comparative prices for J 3 years. The wholesale prices in cities, 
of corn, wheat, cotton, potatoes, oats, hogs, beeves, sheep, butter, 
and eggs, from 1 840 to 19 1 2 inclusive, are given in Table 5 . Details 
as to where the figures were obtained are given in the footnotes to 
the table. The average prices for the 73 years and the average 
prices for the last 8 years considered were as shown in Table 6. 

6 Prices of hogs are for "good to prime" in New York, 1840 to 1870 (Senate Report, 
p. 28). Prices 1871 to 1889 are for Chicago (Senate Report, p. 29). Prices 1890 to 1912 are 
for "heavy" hogs in Chicago (U.S. Dept. Labor, Bulletin 114, p. 94). The prices in New 
York are a little higher than in Chicago, hence the figures before 1871 are a little high. 
The prices are given for both cities for 1871 to 1891. The New York average for these 
twenty-one years is nearly 10 per cent higher than the Chicago average. The prices for 
Chicago from both references are given for 1890 and 1891. In these two years there is a 
difference of only 1 per cent (see footnote 11). 

7 Prices of beeves are for " good to prime " in New York for 1840 to 1891 (Senate Report, 
p. 25). For 1892 to 1912 the prices are for " good to choice " in Chicago (U. S. Dept. Labor, 
Bulletin 114, p. 93). The prices in New York are a little higher than those in Chicago. 
The prices are available for both cities in 1890 and 1891. In these two years the New York 
prices were 14 per cent higher than the Chicago prices. The prices in the table before 1892 
are a little too high for exact comparison with the later prices (see footnote 11). 

8 Sheep prices 1853 to 1891 are for " good to choice " in Cincinnati (Senate Report, p. 31). 
Prices 1896 to 1912 are for "good to extra" (U.S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1900, p. 830 ; 
1905, p. 747; 1909, p. 580; 1912, p. 694). 

9 Prices of butter 1840 to 1890 are for Boston from Monthly Summary of Commerce 
and Finance of the United States, May, 1900, Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Depart- 
ment, p. 3153. Prices for 1891 to 1912 are for "state dairy, tubs, finest" in New York 
(U.S. Dept. Labor, Bulletin 114, p. 98). The prices are given for both cities for 1890 to 
1898. For these nine years the prices were almost the same in both cities. They average 
less than 3 per cent higher in Boston. The figures are therefore comparable. 

1° Prices of eggs 1857 to 1895 are for Boston from Monthly Summary of Commerce and 
Finance of the United States, May, 1900, Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, 
p. 3155. Prices for 1896 to 1901 are for "best fresh" in New York (U.S. Dept. Agr., 
Year Book, 1900, p. 835 ; 1905, p. 755 ; 1909, p. 588 ; 1912, p. 689). The prices are given for 
both cities for 1896 to 1898. For these three years the prices are nearly alike. In one year 
Boston was higher and in two years New York was higher. The prices therefore appear to 
be comparable. 

11 The errors due to the change of cities in the case of beef and hogs would apparently 
make a difference of 2 per cent in the comparative price of all products. The opposite 
change in the price of potatoes would partly offset this. The percentages representing 
comparative prices from 1840 to 189 1 are probably 2 per cent too high. 



112 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The table includes five crops and five animal products. The 
lowest prices ever reported for each class of products was in 1896. 
The general average for that year was 59 per cent of the average 
prices for 73 years. 

TABLE 6. AVERAGE PRICES OF PRODUCTS FOR GIVEN PERIODS 



Average for 

Seventy-three 

Years 



Average 
1905 to 1912 



Corn in New York (per bushel) . '...'. 
Winter wheat in New York (per bushel) 
Cotton in New York (per pound) . . . 

Potatoes (per bushel) 

Oats in New York (per bushel) . . . . 

Hogs (per hundred) 

Beeves (per hundred) 

Sheep (per hundred) . 

Butter (per pound) . . . . 

Eggs (per dozen) . 



$0.66 
1.25 
0.154 
0.65 
o-45 
571 
5-74 
4.00 
0.244 
0.226 



$0.66 
1.04 
0.118 
0.62 
0.47 
6.78 

6-37 
4.29 
0.262 
0.287 



The prices for the crops for the last 8 years considered are no 
higher than the average for the 73 years. The animal products 
are higher. This is primarily due to very low prices of animal 
products before 1870, when range was free. Since 1896 grains 
have been rising in price faster than meat. 




1840 



1850 18C0 1870 



1880 



1890 



1900 



1910 



Average Wholesale Prices in Cities, of Five Important Farm Crops and Five 

Important Animal Products. The Average for 73 Years equals 100 Per Cent. 

Present Prices are only a little Higher than the 73 -Year Average 



in the low yields of the 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 113 

The comparative prices for 73 yea'rs are shown also in the chart 
on page 112. The average price of each product was considered 
as 100 per cent. The percentages fof~each product for each year 
were then calculated. The average ©4^&e percentages for a given 
year represents the comparative price "for c that year. 

Prices of farm products on New *¥ork farms. The average 
prices of some of the important products on New York farms on 
December 1 are given in Table 7. Oft late years wheat has been 
lower than the average for 47 years. d jOther crops are generally 
higher. The period of low prices resulted 
same period. 

Reasons for former low prices. During the eighties and the 
early nineties there was a period of such serious overproduction of 
farm products that farmers received almost nothing for their work. 
The Year Book of the Department of Agriculture gave the aver- 
age farm price of corn in 1896 as 2ii cents per bushel of shelled 
corn. The average price in Nebraska in that year was 13 cents 
and in 1897 it was 17 cents. 1 The corn from a farm that the 
writer helped to operate, in eastern Nebraska, sold in 1896 for 
8 cents per bushel of shelled corn, so that the above prices appear 
to be sufficiently high. 

If efficient methods of farming are used, an acre of corn in the 
Corn Belt can be grown, harvested, and marketed with 20 to 25 
hours of man labor and 40 to 50 hours of horse labor. The Year 
Book reports the average yield of corn in Nebraska in 1896 as 
37.5 bushels of shelled corn per acre. At 13 cents a bushel this 
was worth $4.88. This is the amount of money that the farmer 
received for two days' work of himself and team, use of an acre 
of land, use of machinery, use of corncrib, and to pay the corn- 
shelling bill. This amount of money left the farmer less than 
no pay for his own labor. He paid for the privilege of working. 

The prices of farm products in 1896 were the lowest for the 
past 73 years. Yet it is that year, 1896, with which present prices 
are almost invariably compared in order to show how high prices 
now are. Why not take 1846, 1856, 1866, 1876, 1886? Or, 
better yet, why not use a long enough period to tell whether we 

1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 1898, p. 692. 



114 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



TABLE 7. AVERAGE VALUES ON NEW YORK FARMS ON 
DECEMBER 11 





Corn 


Wheat 


Oats 


Barley 


Rye 


Buck- 


Potatoes 


Hay 
(Per ton) 


Year 


(Cents per 


(Per 


(Cents per 


(Cents per 


(Cents per 


wheat 

(Cents per 

bushel) 


(Cents per 




bushel) 


bushel) 


bushel) 


bushel) 


bushel) 


bushel) 


1866 .* . 


81 


jb.86 


42 


74 


84 


64 


48 


£".25 


1867 




95 


1.89 


54 


105 


107 


74 


64 


12.51 


1868 




83 


i-55 


55 


132 


102 


75 


57 


11. 16 


1869 




82 


1.09 


44 


7& 


82 


68 


40 


10.03 


1870 




78 


1.27 


52 


76 


87 


73 


58 


15-45 


1871 




74 


1.36 


46 


70 


79 


70 


43 


17.46 


1872 




62 


1.46 


39 


72 


79 


74 


56 


16.47 


1873 




64 


1.47 


40 


IOI 


79 


7i 


5° 


16.57 


1874 




84 


1. 14 


5i 


106 


83 


72 


5i 


11.81 


i875 




65 


1. 14 


38 


78 


75 


58 


3 1 


12.21 


1876 




62 


1.20 


38 


76 


75 


68 


73 


10.27 


i877 




58 


1. 19 


34 


68 


70 


72 


41 


9-34 


1878 




5o 


1.02 


29 


70 


58 


5° 


81 


7.40 


1879 




61 


1.40 


40 


72 


75 


54 


36 


9-79 


1880 




57 


1.17 


44 


83 


83 


53 


42 


15.90 


1881 




77 


i-37 


48 


93 


93 


82 


87 


H-55 


1882 




77 


1. 10 


45 


80 


76 


75 


61 


12.25 


1883 




73 


1. 11 


40 


75 


72 


86 


39 


10.50 


1884 




60 


0.85 


35 


66 


63 


56 


39 


12.50 


1885 




58 


0.96 


36 


7i 


67 


53 


45 


12.75 


1886 




56 


0.84 


35 


61 


59 


52 


4i 


10.75 


1887 




57 


0.82 


37 


68 


61 


53 


62 


10.76 


1888 




58 


1. 10 


37 


70 


63 


62 


38 


11.25 


1889 




49 


0.90 


3 2 


56 


55 


47 


47 


9.00 


1890 




65 


1. 00 


5° 


78 


73 


58 


78 


7-75 


1891 




66 


1. 00 


38 


65 


88 


56 


37 


11.00 


1892 




60 


0.85 


39 


75 


65 


5° 


65 


11.00 


1893 




55 


0.76 


3° 


60 


63 


60 


55 


ii-33 


1894 




61 


0.62 


39 


56 


54 


54 


48 


9.66 


1895 




45 


0.68 


28 


81 


48 


44 


23 


13.70 


1896 




38 


0.88 


26 


39 


44 


37 


3 1 


12.04 


1897 




40 


0.90 


27 


42 


48 


40 


67 


8.25 


1898 




43 


0.72 


3 1 


48 


5° 


45 


42 


5-75 


1899 




45 


0.80 


33 


5° 


56 


59 


40 


10.45 


1900 




47 


0.77 


32 


5 1 


56 


57 


45 


14.05 


1901 




72 


0.82 


48 


56 


62 


57 


7i 


10.58 


1902 




67 


0.79 


36 , 


55 


58 


59 


59 


10.53 


J 9°3 




60 


0.81 


4i 


55 


61 


59 


56 


10.96 


1904 




64 


1.09 


38 


57 


73 


61 


54 


10.44 


1905 




61 


0.86 


37 


54 


67 


59 


70 


10.38 


1906 




59 


0.82 


40 


55 


65 


61 


49 


12.10 


1907 




7i 


0.99 


57 


80 


81 


70 


57 


15.50 


1908 




80 


0.99 


56 


70 


81 


76 


75 


12.25 


1909 




74 


1. 11 


49 


69 


80 


69 


5° 


14.20 


1910 




63 


0.96 


42 


70 


74 


65 


48 


13.70 


1911 




77 


0.95 


5 1 


97 


89 


73 


90 


17.90 


1912 




70 


0.99 


42 


68 


76 


64 


58 


14.90 


Average 


















for 47 years 


64 


#1.05 


40 


7i 


7 1 


62 


53 


£11.92 



U.S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Statistics, Bulletins 56-63, and Year Book, 191 2. 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 1 15 

are on a " hill " of high prices or whether we have just passed 
through a "valley" of low prices? 

The average farm price of corn in the United States for the 
ten years 1891 to 1900 was 33 cents a bushel. The average value 
of the crop per acre was $7.99. For the same ten years, the 
average farm price of wheat was 63 cents and the average 'value 
of the crop per acre was $8.44. 

As a matter of fact, the last twenty years of the last century 
were a period the like of which we never had before and can 
never see again. The great open prairies were then skimmed. 
Following the Civil War, a large number of persons went into 
farming — probably too many for the old conditions, vastly too 
many for the new. New kinds of farm machinery came into gen- 
eral use in the eighties that doubled the farmer's efficiency. For 
ages, nature had been enriching the lands of the great Central 
Grass Belt. These lands had little value, so that land rent was 
almost nothing. They were exceedingly fertile, so that plant-food 
was free. Free land, free plant-food, too many farmers, new ma- 
chinery — a combination of conditions that never before existed 
and can never come again ! Those were the days when the 
Nebraska farmer burned corn because it was cheaper than coal. 
It is no wonder that our agricultural exports were large. Nor is 
it any wonder that young men went to cities by the thousands, 
because farming did not pay. 

Present farm prices not high for farm co7iditions. The city 
dweller who compares prices with 1896, and perhaps remembers 
his boyhood days on the farm, thinks that the farmers of to-day 
must be getting rich. He supposes that every farmer rides in an 
automobile. Some persons go so far as to blame the farmer's 
automobile for the high cost of living. As a matter of fact, the 
percentage of farmers who own automobiles is very small. There 
are only a few sections where such ownership is common, and even 
in those sections the landlords are often the ones with the auto- 
mobiles. Taking the United States as a whole, for every farmer 
who owns an automobile there are many whose only vehicle of 
luxury is a spring seat on a lumber wagon. 

The census report gives some indication of the wealth of 



Ii6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

farmers. Thirty-seven per cent of the farmers in the United 
States are renters. The average value of implements, machinery, 
and live-stock on the rented farms in 1910 was $699. Part of this 
is owned by the landlord. Sixty-two per cent of the farmers own 
part of the land that they operate. The average value of land, 
buildings, implements and machinery, and live-stock on these 
farms was $6754. One third of these farms were mortgaged and 
one sixth of them included some rented land. 

The average farmer is making interest on his capital and farm 
wages for his labor. 1 The interest is not high enough to attract 
any large amount of money out of the cities. The wages are not 
high enough to cause any large number of men to move from city 
to country, but they are high enough to keep most of the boys on 
the farm. Probably enough of them are now staying, but the effect 
of this will not be felt for a few years. Just now (19 14), we are 
feeling the effect of the great exodus of boys during the nineties. 
Now boys are studying agriculture and are staying on the farms. 
They are responding to the increased prices by becoming farmers, 
as their fathers are responding with increased crops. 

Probable future prices. We must not expect that the value of 
farm products on the farm will drop much unless farming is again 
overdone. The present conditions may result in too many boys 
staying on the farm and in temporary overproduction. There will 
also be overproduction of some products every year, as there has 
always been. For example, thousands of tons of cabbages were 
never harvested in 191 2 because the crop was so overproduced 
that the price did not pay for hauling. Thousands of bushels of 
onions were stored in the fall of 19 12 and thrown away the 
following spring because there was no market. The writer saw 
2500 bushels rotting in one storage house in Ohio for want of a 
market. But such conditions soon correct themselves. 

The prices in 191 3 were generally abnormally high because of 
the excessive drought in the preceding summer. But any perma- 
nent lowering of the prices of products on the farm must not be 
expected, at least not unless everything else becomes cheaper. 
Land now has a value, plant-food has a value. Every farmer 

1 U.S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 132. 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 117 

knows how to greatly increase his crops, but each added bushel 
costs more per bushel. The crop yields will continue to be in- 
creased if prices rise. They will be decreased if prices fall. There 
is much land to be reclaimed, but always at much cost. Land that 
must be drained or irrigated or fertilized or green-manured is ex- 
pensive. The bushels grown on it are costly bushels. By heavy 
fertilization or other intensive methods, we can easily increase 
crops ; but after a fair crop is secured every bushel that we get 
costs more than the preceding bushel. The limit of yield per acre 
is far from reached, but the period of low cost of production per 
bushel is passed. 

Europe secures larger yields per acre, but even with the low 
wages the cost per bushel is more. Europe has to pay the farmer 
much higher prices for nearly all products in order to secure her 
large yields. 

WAYS OF REDUCING THE COST OF FOOD 

Reducing the cost of distribution. We cannot look to the farms 
for any great reduction in the cost of food. But there appears to 
be one way in which prices may be lowered to the consumer. 
From a half to two thirds of the money paid by the consumer 
never reaches the farmer. Most of this amount is consumed by 
the exceedingly cumbersome machinery of distribution in cities. 
Probably half of this excessive increase in price after the cities are 
reached can be eliminated. But if this is to be done, some per- 
sons who are a part of the present system will have to change 
their occupations. These persons naturally object to any change. 
The city dweller will also have to learn that when he telephones 
for a quart of potatoes to be delivered, what he pays the farmer 
for the potatoes is practically nothing. What he calls the high 
cost of potatoes is the high cost of delivery and bookkeeping. 
The first step in reducing the cost of living is to buy more than a 
quart of potatoes at one time. 

Use of cheaper food. As our population is becoming larger we 
are being forced to use cheaper kinds of food. Beef is one of the 
most expensive foods, because so much feed is required in order 



n8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

to produce a pound of it. It has been estimated that a given 
amount of grain will support five times as many persons as will 
the meat grown from it. As population increases, the price of 
grain rises faster than does the price of meat. During the last 
ten years, corn has risen in price much faster than have steers. 
This is the reason why farmers are not raising more beef. The 
childish suggestion that each farmer should raise two steers a year 
would result in a very much higher cost of living, if farmers were 
foolish enough to follow the advice. This advice ignores the fact 
that we cannot eat the grain and also produce beef from it. Laws 
are often introduced in Congress and in state legislatures to pro- 
hibit the killing of heifer calves, in the apparent assumption that 
calves live on air. The food in the milk that it takes to produce a 
given amount of veal will support more persons than will the veal. 
The longer the calf is fed on milk, the less is the supply of human 
food. The comparative prices offered for the milk and for the veal 
produced from it are measures of the comparative need of the city 
for these products. Hence, calves are not kept long except where 
milk is cheap. Few cattle are raised except where feed is cheap. 

A given amount of feed will produce much more human food 
in milk than it will in beef. Dairy cows are therefore increasing 
about as rapidly as population. We keep a little more than one 
cow for five persons. In addition to milk, this number of cows 
provides about one veal or one old cow or bull for beef for each 
family each year. 

Hogs are much more efficient users of food than are steers. 
A given amount of grain will produce many more pounds of pork 
than it will of beef. For this reason, hogs are increasing in 
number while beef cattle are decreasing. 

Poultry are very efficient users of food. As meat rises in price, 
more eggs are used. The egg receipts in the seven leading egg 
markets, New York, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, San 
Francisco, and Milwaukee, were as follows : *■ 

1 89 1 5,040,888 cases 

1901 8,655,001 cases 

191 1 14,275,271 cases 

1 U.S. Dept. Agr., Year Book, 191 2, p. 688. 



. CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 119 

From 1890 to 19 10 the population of these seven cities, in- 
cluding all the territory now in New York City, increased 78 per 
cent. The receipts of eggs increased 183 per cent. We are 
substituting eggs for beef. 

When populatfon becomes very dense, roughage and waste 
products will be used for producing milk. After we have kept all 
the dairy cows that are needed, we will raise as many beef cattle as 
can be kept on the remaining supply of roughage and pasture. We 
are feeding animals less and less on grain that is good for human 
food. The decreasing number of beef cattle and the tendency to 
market steers at a younger age are an expression of this condition. 

All these changes mean that some persons who once ate meat 
must now eat less of it. Unfortunately the manual laborers, who 
are the very ones most in need of meat, are the first to have to go 
without. We are getting the first intimation of the conditions that 
have long existed in all densely populated countries. Probably we 
can support the vast hordes of people that are estimated as our 
possible future population, but they will not live so well as we live. 

Location of factories in villages and small cities. Compara- 
tively few persons go from city to country. Such a movement is 
neither necessary nor desirable. It is very difficult for grown per- 
sons who have never lived on a farm to become farmers. The 
best time to learn to farm is in one's youth. But large numbers 
c# persons who are employed in towns and cities now live where 
they can have land enough to raise part of their food. By locat- 
ing industries in smaller places and by the increase of trolley lines 
it is made possible for many workers to live on small plots of 
ground that will provide for a garden and hens, and sometimes 
for a cow. This enables the family to greatly reduce the cost of 
living. At the same time it provides the best kind of work for 
the children. The number of farms of less than 20 acres in- 
creased 25 per cent in the last ten years. A very large proportion 
of these places are occupied by persons who are employed at 
some industry other than farming. In a single county without 
any large cities — Tompkins County, New York — there are 
about 500 such places. 1 

1 Cornell University Agr. Exp. Sta., Bulletin 295, p. 562. 



120 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Small or large farms. One of the popular suggestions for 
reducing the cost of food is to reduce the size of farms. But, for 
general farming, our farms are now too small. Machinery makes 
it possible for a family to work more land than formerly. The 
farm that uses two or three workers is a family farm. It will 
employ a farmer and his sons. Four horses are required for 
farming with modern machinery, but four horses can raise 80 to 
100 acres of general farm crops. Pasture land, woodland, roads, 
and farmstead make up half the farm in most sections, hence 
160 to 200 acres is usually required for efficiency in general 
farming. In the general farming sections from New York, to 
Nebraska, farms are rapidly changing to the four- to six-horse 
size. The city, as well as the country, is best off when farms are 
of an efficient size. With small general farms it is necessary to 
keep four horses in order to use labor-saving machinery, even if 
the area is too small to keep the horses busy. There is no benefit 
to the city dweller in having small farms if the farm horses eat 
the product. The moderate-sized general farms contribute more 
per acre to the city food supply than do the small general farms. 1 

Truck and fruit farms may be somewhat smaller, but only a 
few such farms are required in order to supply our needs. The 
vast majority of farms must raise hay, grain, potatoes, live-stock, 
and milk. 

Those who would keep the boys on the farm defeat their pur- 
pose when they would reduce the size of farms. The four-horse 
size mentioned above is a two-man farm. If farms are too small 
to provide profitable work for the sons, they very wisely leave. 

In Jefferson County, New York, it was found that 79 per cent 
of the boys had left small farms and only 16 per cent had left the 
good-sized farms (Table 8). 

China furnishes an example of a country with small farms. It 
is estimated that about 75 per cent of the population are farm- 
ers. With the little patches, and the hand labor of men, women, 
and children, each family can produce only a trifle more than it 
eats. Since there is so little surplus, only a small city population 
can be supported. 

1 Cornell University Agr. Exp. Sta., Bulletin 295, p. 527. 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 



121 



TABLE 8. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO BOYS LEAVING 
THE FARM, 674 FARMS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Acres Farmed 



Number 

of 
Families 



Percentage of Sons 



At home 



On other 
farms 



Not 
farmers 



30 or less 

31 to 50 
51 to 100 
101 to 150 
151 to 200 
Over 200 



25 
29 
171 
187 
136 
126 



33 

22 

8 

10 

10 



46 
26 

17 

12 

iS 



If our population ever becomes as congested as is that in parts 
of Europe or Asia, we may want smaller farms and may do away 
with machinery and horses and use men and women to till the 
land. The reason why we use machinery and horses is because 
labor is high. Some of the old countries have tried machinery 
and discarded it, not because of ignorance of the workers but 
because human labor is cheaper. In most parts of India it is 
cheaper to cut grain with a sickle than with a binder. How 
cheaply these people work is a measure of their poverty. 

None of these discussions should be construed to favor large 
"bonanza farms," or large holdings by landlords. Near large 
cities in the East, many large tracts of land have been purchased in 
recent years for country homes and as places where wealthy men 
play at farming. The influence on the agriculture of such regions 
has been demoralizing. In some parts of the country, particularly 
in the Middle West, there is a tendency for some persons to buy 
farms to be run by tenants. The tendency for one individual to 
acquire a large number of farms for such a purpose is a serious 
menace. In the opinion of the writer it would be well to have laws 
that would place some limitation on the size of such holdings. 

Restriction of immigration. Another popular suggestion for 
decreasing the cost of food is to increase the number of farmers 
by persuading persons to go from the city to the farms or by the 
importation of cheap labor for the farms. These suggestions would 
bring about exactly the opposite condition from the one that is 



122 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

desired. If we continue indefinitely to allow practically unre- 
stricted immigration, we shall in time reach the cheap-labor con- 
ditions of the Old World. Their yields per acre are attractive, 
but are secured at what cost ! Women and children must work in 
the fields in order to live. The returns per acre are high, but per 
worker they are low. It is estimated that the American farmer 
produces twice as much per worker as does the Belgian peasant 
and five times as much as does the Chinese peasant. The city 
dweller must not deceive himself by thinking that he can keep 
up wages in the city and pay poor wages to the farmer. The 
European system secures larger yields, but the farmers receive 
more for nearly all farm products. Their cost of production per 
bushel is higher in spite of the cheap labor and the high yields. 

Perhaps the worst suggestion made for increasing farm pro- 
duction is that we bring in cheap labor of other races to help the 
farmer. The worst calamity that can ever come to a rural region 
is to have it settled by two races that will not intermarry after 
a generation or two. 

One of the most serious problems in the country is to maintain 
schools, churches, and other social institutions. The chief school 
problem is distance. There are not enough children within 
convenient distance of a schoolhouse, nor is there usually enough 
wealth to maintain a good school. If two school systems are to be 
maintained, they will be poor indeed. The money that is inad- 
equate to maintain one good school system must be divided 
between two schools, one for each race. 

Persons who have never lived in such a community may 
question the need for two schools. The rural school is the chief 
social meeting-place of boys and girls of the farm. To a large 
extent the noon hour and the recess take the place of the evening 
parties in town. In the United States, whenever any large 
number of each of two non-intermarrying races have settled in 
a community, two school systems have resulted. In parts of 
South America, less racial distinctions have been made and the 
different races have intermarried. 

The physical fact of the scattered population is the chief 
reason for the poor rural schools of the South and for the high 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 123 

percentage of illiteracy among southern whites. If the Negroes 
in any prosperous county were replaced by white families, the 
schools would doubtless be as good as in the North, because 
there would be enough persons within reach of the school to 
maintain a good school. Transportation of pupils may be sug- 
gested, but the problem remains the same. If every other house 
is occupied by a Negro, whatever the school system, there will 
be only half as many white families in a given area. 

The same point applies to churches, granges, social gatherings, 
cooperative effort, and all things that have to do with the progress 
of civilization. The greatest obstacle to all such progress in 
rural regions is distance. Dividing the population into two non- 
intermarrying classes doubles the problem by doubling the distance. 

It is well known in the South that whenever a rural community 
becomes all white, the land values double and treble. This is 
primarily because there are then enough persons in a rural com- 
munity to maintain good schools, churches, and other institutions 
of civilization. The twofold and threefold increase in land values 
is a measure of the increased desirability as a home. California 
furnishes a similar example. When a few Japanese buy land in a 
community, the land values drop. There are then not enough 
Americans to maintain the American social institutions that must 
be kept up if life in the country is to be worth living. Probably a 
settlement of Americans in a farming community in Japan would 
have an equally bad effect. The Japanese laws indicate that this 
is the opinion of the Japanese government. 

A high development of the rural community requires a homo- 
geneous population. In the city there may be enough people of 
each race so that each may maintain its own institutions and its 
own social relations ; but in the country there are too few, even 
when all are one. The farm community must be enough of a unit 
so that all will work together socially if the highest development 
is to be secured. 

The primary reasons that lead families to leave the farms 
and go to town usually are to get the benefit of better schools, 
churches, and other social institutions and to have better medical 
attention. Whenever a large part of the population is made up of 



124 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

an alien race, the reasons for such a movement are many times 
increased. The menace to health of a less educated race is also a 
powerful factor in preventing progress in a mixed community. 1 

The price of products in the United States is based on Ameri- 
can wages and the American standard of living. If one farmer 
can get cheap labor so that he can sell on the American wage 
market but produce on a low wage cost, he may do well for a 
time ; but when others also get the cheap labor, he is worse off 
than before. 

The men who do the manual labor inherit the land. This has 
been true even of the Negro. Much of the richest land of the 
South is in the hands of the Negroes. They do not yet own 
much of the land ; but what difference does it make, whether they 
own or rent, if they are the persons who make up the rural com- 
munity ? Omitting Oklahoma, there are 222 counties in the South 
where the number of black farmers exceeds the number of white 
farmers. In 15 of these counties less than 1 in 10 of the 
farmers are white. In 5 3 of the counties there are more Negroes 
than whites who own their farms. In all these 222 counties the 
hired labor is nearly all black. As a result of these conditions the 
white population is very scattered. The better the land, the more 
likely are the white persons to move to town. If the land is good 
enough, it can be farmed by Negro tenants and the owner thus 
allowed to live in a town or a village. It takes good land to stand 
this treatment. The poorest land has required the intelligence of 
a white operator in order to make it yield a living. The black 
prairie soils of Alabama and Mississippi are striking examples. 
These are very fertile limestone soils. They readily grow alfalfa, 
corn, oats, wheat, cotton, and many other crops. In all this region 
there is a tendency for the white population to move to the towns 
and villages, where schools are available. The white and the 
black population of Montgomery, Alabama, are almost equal, but 
in Montgomery County outside the city there are nearly 6 blacks 
to 1 white. A large proportion of these few white persons live 
in small villages, so that the proportion on farms is still less. In 

1 Dr. Charles T. Nesbitt, " The Health Menace of Alien Races," World's Work, 
November, 1913, p. 74. 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 125 

Selma there are nearly as many whites as blacks, but in Dallas 
County outside of this city there are almost 9 black persons for 
1 white. A large proportion of these few white families live in 
small villages, so that the proportion on the farms is still less. 

The results on production have been just as bad. These rich 
soils, which should be producing as Iowa soils do, do not produce 
their own mules or all the feed for them. Little but cotton is 
grown, and the yields of this are very poor for the soil. There 
are few regions where poorer use is being made of the natural 
advantages. 

These facts are given as an illustration of the general economic 
laws that govern changes in farm population and farm ownership. 
When persons who can underlive the present farmers settle in 
a farm community, they tend to displace the present farmers, 
partly because they live for less and partly because, living for 
less, they make the community undesirable as a home. At the 
same time the agriculture is made poorer rather than better. The 
same principles have frequently been illustrated in the northern 
states, but the statistics are not so readily available. When we 
settle any persons in a rural community as workers we should 
consider, not whether they will pay us a profit as laborers, but 
whether they will make the kind of persons that we desire for our 
future farmers. 

Some persons are now advising that the lowest class of our 
immigrants be turned to the farms. These immigrants have an 
entirely different experience and a different standard of living 
from any who have yet settled on northern farms. It is certain 
that any considerable settlement of such persons in any rural 
community would drive out the present farmers. It is certain also 
that a poorer agriculture would be established. Of late years it 
has been a popular thing for public speakers and writers with very 
limited knowledge of the facts to berate the American farmer. 
Unfortunately some persons who have occupied important posi- 
tions have contributed to the confusion, until many of the thinking 
persons in cities have been convinced that our farmers are in- 
ferior to those in any other country of the world. The misleading 
and often untrue statements of the wonderful things done in 



126 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Europe are largely responsible for this unfortunate condition. 
One of the popular errors is to compare the potato crop of New 
York with that of Europe in order to show how little our farmers 
know about farming. It would be just as accurate to compare the 
apple crop of Europe with that of New York in order to show 
what superior farmers we have in New York. Or we might com- 
pare the corn yields of Champaign County, Illinois, with those of 
Europe, in order to show our superiority. Our wheat yields are 
compared with those of England as a means of showing how 
poorly we farm, bufe most of our wheat is grown with much less 
rain and with a less favorable climate. Our farmers also pay better 
wages and get less for their wheat. Such unscientific and mis- 
leading comparisons have done much harm. 

As our farms are the foundation of our wealth, so the farmers 
are the foundation of our civilization. No high civilization can 
long endure that is not based on a high type of citizenship on the 
farms. No temporary inflation of production can compensate for 
bringing in a lower class of farmers. 

A large proportion of our farm boys are now staying on the 
farms. The great movement to cities has been checked. We do 
not need to. look to any other country for more farmers or farm 
laborers. Throughout the North our farms have always been 
" family farms." The farmer and his family do nearly all the 
work. Less than half of the farmers (46 per cent) hire any labor. 
Most of the hired men are the sons of neighboring farmers. 
Some individuals always clamor for cheap labor, but such labor is 
not needed. If it were supplied in large amount the family-farm 
system would be destroyed. This system results in the best citizen- 
ship and in the best agriculture. How much more efficient it is 
than hired labor can be testified to by business men who have 
tried to run large farms. Such farms often get large yields and 
are often referred to as examples of what can be done, but with 
very rare exceptions they furnish examples of how to lose money. 

If any considerable amount of low-class labor settles on our 
farms it will result, as it always has resulted, in driving out the 
better farmers, and will at the same time result in a poorer agri- 
culture. The aim of public-spirited persons and of government 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 127 

endeavor should be to make the farm a more attractive place, so 
that it will hold intelligent and forceful men, not as landlords, but 
as workers. We should raise the rural community to the standard 
of the American boy and girl, rather than look around the world 
for someone who is willing to accept life on a farm regardless of 
its standards. 

Restriction of exportation of phosphorus. The four important 
plant-foods that are needed in increasing quantities are nitrogen, 
phosphorus, potassium, and calcium. We have an inexhaustible 
supply of calcium in our limestone and of nitrogen in the air. 
Both of these can be supplied to our soils to the extent that prices 
of crops warrant. Fortunately most of the American soils in the 
northern states seem to have a fair amount of potassium. There 
is enough of this in the mines of Germany to last for an indefinite 
time. But the supply of phosphorus in American soils is often 
deficient. This is the chief constituent in most of the chemical 
fertilizers. The chief source of phosphorus is from the phosphate 
rock of the Carolinas, Tennessee, and some other southern states. 
The amount of this rock seems to be limited. 

According to Dr. C. G. Hopkins of the University of Illinois 
we are now exporting each year as much phosphorus in this rock 
as would be contained in twice the entire wheat crop of the 
United States. Germany controls the exports from her potash 
mines, which appear to be inexhaustible. We give no attention to 
the exportation of the phosphorus that we are likely to need on 
our own farms. An investigation of the phosphorus supply and 
our probable future needs should be made, and the question of 
limitation of export should be given careful attention, before it is 
too late. 

SUMMARY 

The wholesale prices of farm products are not very high when 
compared with the average for the past 73 years. The prices that 
farmers receive for animal products are higher than the average, 
but the prices received for crops are generally as low as, or lower 
than, the 73-year average. For a generation after the opening of 
the Western prairies, prices were extremely low. In comparison 



128 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

« 

with this period prices are high, but, when comparing with a long 

period of time, the prices that farmers receive are not very high. 

Crop yields east of the Mississippi River have been rapidly in- 
creasing in the last ten to fifteen years. Before that time there 
was a period of low yields, because of low prices. 

Farmers know how to raise much larger crops, and- do raise 
larger crops whenever they are convinced that prices will be high 
enough to make it pay to do so. 

In nearly every county in the United States there is consider- 
able land that can be brought into use by clearing, drainage, irri- 
gation, or other means. This land will allow for a considerable 
increase in production. 

But there is very little that can be done to increase production 
without increased cost. Land that must be cleared, drained, irri- 
gated, green-manured, or heavily fertilized is expensive land. The 
bushels grown on it are expensive bushels. After a fair yield has 
been secured, every bushel that we get usually costs more than the 
preceding bushel. Farmers quickly adjust their yields to prices. 
If present prices continue, production will be increased. If prices 
rise, production will be considerably increased. 

There does not seem to be any likelihood that prices paid to 
farmers can be permanently lowered, but there are ways of de- 
creasing the cost of food to the consumer. 

The machinery of distribution after products leave the farm is 
unnecessarily expensive. Much of this cost can be eliminated. 

Of necessity we are using more foods that come from plants 
and less animal foods. 

By locating factories in villages where the workers can have 
gardens, the cost of living may be reduced. 

The popular suggestions to reduce the size of farms and to im- 
port cheap labor to help farm are more likely to result in expen- 
sive, rather than cheap, food. Small farms that follow the same 
type of farming usually have less left to sell than do moderate- 
sized farms, because so much is consumed by the horses and the 
men who work the land. 

A restriction of immigration by raising the standard for admis- 
sion is strongly advised as one of the best means of preventing 



CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 129 

the cost of living from rising very much higher, and as a means 
of checking the present tendency to lower the standard of living. 
In consideration of the striking need for phosphorus over large 
areas of the United States, an investigation of the phosphorus 
supply with a view to restriction of export is recommended. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 
WHO DESIRE TO FARM 

By Professor G. F. Warren, Cornell University 

(From Circular No. 24, College of Agriculture, Cornell University) 

THIS circular is prepared to make a few suggestions to the 
considerable number of inexperienced persons who are mak- 
ing farm investments. For a number of years large numbers of 
such persons have been writing to the College of Agriculture for 
advice. It is not often possible, in the limits of a letter, to fully 
answer the questions asked, nor will it be possible in a circular, 
but a few of the more common questions and mistakes may be 
discussed. The writer is well aware that the facts and opinions 
here presented are not popular, but he believes that if carefully 
considered they may save many misfortunes that are sometimes 
tragedies. It is not the purpose of this circular to persuade any- 
one to farm or not to farm. The aim is to give a better under- 
standing of what may be expected from a farm, and to suggest the 
safer ways of procedure for those who are starting farming. The 
facts here presented are based on records of large numbers of farms. 

Profits to be expected in farming. Farming is a very con- 
servative business and, like all conservative enterprises, it gives 
conservative returns. Compared with large city enterprises, farm- 
ing is a very small business and, like other small enterprises, too 
much should not be expected from it. It is a very complicated 
business and requires considerable experience for success. * For 
one who knows how to farm, it offers a wholesome living and a 
modest profit. 

In the best townships in Jefferson County, in a year fully as 
good as the average, the average farmer and his family with a 
capital of $9006 made $1155 above the business expenses of the 

130 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 131 

farm. In addition they had the use of a house and some farm 
products. The houses are nearly all heated by stoves, with wood 
that comes from the farm. Usually not more than one stove is 
kept burning besides the one in the kitchen. Probably less than 
one in a hundred of the farmhouses has a bathroom. The 
majority of the houses are such as would rent for $10 to $20 a 
month in a village. In this county the farms usually furnish 
potatoes and milk and some vegetables, eggs, and meat for family 
use. The $1:155 represents the amount that the average family 
had for living, aside from what the farm furnished, and for saving. 
This should not be compared with city wages because the farmer 
has capital invested. At 5 per cent the use of the capital is worth 
$450, and unpaid farm work done by members of the family was 
valued at $96, so that the pay for the farmer's work, or his labor 
income, was $609, besides the use of a house and some farm 
products. This is considerably above the average for the state, 
but is exceeded in some townships in the state. In 16 townships 
in three counties of 1988 farmers 63 made labor incomes of over 
$2000 ; that is, made 5 per cent interest on the capital and had 
over $2000 besides the use of a house and some farm products 
as pay for the year's labor. Farming does not often give what in 
the city are considered large profits, nor is there so great danger 
of large losses. Bulletins 295 and 349 of this station give some 
of the variations in profits made by different farmers. 

A common wage in New York for experienced hired men is 
$30 a month, with house, land for a garden, firewood, and a 
quart or two of milk a day. In some of the more prosperous parts 
of the state, $35 is often paid. Very rarely does a hired man get 
more than $40 by the year. Unmarried men are paid about $5 a 
month less than married men, but are given their board. Inex- 
perienced men are, of course, worth much less. The above figures 
may give some idea of the profits in farming. 

The glowing stories about farming that are told in many 
publications have led to very wrong conclusions as to the profits 
to be expected. A recent article that is typical stated that the 
farmer made $2400 a year from one enterprise and that he made 
1 20 per cent on the capital. But no allowance was made for labor 



132 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of men, horses, or machinery. Depreciation, taxes, and insurance 
on buildings were omitted, to say nothing of the multitude of 
miscellaneous expenses. 

To call the difference between the value of the feed and the 
returns from live-stock profit, is just as inaccurate as it would be 
to call the difference between the cost of leather and the value of 
shoes the profit of a shoe factory. This error is very common in 
farm publications. 

Popular publications are of course looking for striking things. 
Headlines stating that John Jones and his son rose at five o'clock, 
milked the cows, worked in the fields all day, and milked the 
cows again at night, and made a dollar and a half apiece by so 
doing, would probably not add to the circulation any more than 
would the statement that merchant So-and-so went to the store in 
the morning, stayed there all day except for a hurried lunch, 
returned home for supper, and that by so doing he made enough 
to pay his modest living expenses. Publications are usually not 
looking for the ordinary, they are looking for the unusual ; that 
is, for the news — and the news is sometimes highly colored. 

Compared with city work, farming is a very much better busi- 
ness than many farmers think it to be. It is a much poorer 
business than many city persons think it to be. At one of the 
Farmers' Week lectures, the writer gave the results from some of 
the most successful farms in the state. After the talk, an intelligent 
farmer stated that he did not believe any farm, ever made so much 
money. An equally intelligent city business man criticized the talk 
even more severely because it did not show profits enough. 

How big a business is a farm ? The following statement from 
a recent letter is typical : 

I want to buy a farm and go to farming scientifically. I have always had a 
love for outdoor life and find that my present occupation is too confining for 
my health. I have about $5000 and have thought that you might possibly 
know of some good graduate of the College of Agriculture who would act as 
superintendent for me for a share of the profits. We would prefer a married 
man so that he could board the help. 

Very few farmers who have only $5000 invested in the busi- 
ness employ much, if any, hired labor. In fact, a farm with this 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 133 

amount of capital is usually a one-man farm. The graduate of a 
college who would act as superintendent of this farm should be 
able to do all the work himself, if not interfered with too much by 
the owner. There would usually be nothing left for the owner to 
do and no other hired help to board. 

A farmer running such a farm would ordinarily make a labor 
income of about $350. A person who is not so vitally interested 
would not be likely to run the farm so well. It takes more ability 
to run such a place and make any profit than it does to run a 
larger enterprise successfully. A graduate of a college of agricul- 
ture who has the experience and the ability that are necessary to 
make a profit on such a farm is a man who can earn $800 to 
$1200 a year in any one of several different kinds of work. In 
short, this represents too small a business to make it pay to hire a 
graduate. 

A few farmers who use this amount of capital are doing well, 
but they are the exception. A considerable number who know 
how to farm are doing well when the owned capital is not more 
than $5000 and when nearly as much more is borrowed. It is 
not safe for any but experienced farmers to be so heavily in debt. 
Another way of obtaining more capital is to be a renter. Many 
renters with less than $5000 of their own are doing well. 

Judging by the profits that farmers make, 5 per cent of the 
capital would be very high pay for a manager. It will be seen 
at once that no small business would justify one in employing a 
graduate of an agricultural college as a manager. Usually it requires 
a wise investment of $20,000 to $40,000 in order to justify one 
in employing a really good graduate of a college of agriculture 
who has had good farm experience and good business experience. 

A general or dairy farm with this amount of capital will usually 
employ three to six men. A good manager of such a farm does 
not conduct his business from an office ; he should be at work 
with the men and should do as much farm work as any other man 
on the place. No industry can afford a non-working foreman for 
so few workers. 

In 16 townships in 3 counties, the 23 most profitable farms 
selling market milk at wholesale had an average capital of 



134 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

$19,728. Their average area was 257 acres, of which 154 acres 
were in harvested crops. These farms kept an average of 32 cows, 
besides young stock. These large profitable farms employed an 
average of 3.2 men, or a little over two men besides the farmer. 
With this amount of help, the stock was cared for and, in addi- 
tion, enough cash crops were raised so that over one third of the 
income came from the sale of crops. The crops sold for enough 
to pay the entire feed bill and have left an average of $1553 per 
farm. For a business of this size, inexperienced persons often 
employ two or three times as many men. 

Farming a slow business. The returns from money invested in 
farming are very slow compared with most enterprises. Farming 
is a family business. The returns from some investments do not 
even come in the farmer's lifetime ; they are made for his sons. 

Farming is not a factory process. It depends on living things. 
Many of these things cannot be hurried. If one starts to improve 
his soil, he will not get far until he has carried out one full rota- 
tion. This usually takes six years on the dairy or live-stock farms. 
At least a second rotation must be carried out before the full 
returns come in. The successful live-stock breeder takes time. 
The favorite cow may persist in raising bull calves, so that the 
herd is not soon replaced by her daughters. An investment in 
tile drains is a good thing for many farms, but we do not expect 
the drains to be paid for at once. 

The man who plants an apple orchard has a long-time invest- 
ment. Orchard surveys of four counties published by this station 
indicate that the average apple orchard does not yield much until it 
is over twenty years old. The maximum production is reached at 
forty to fifty years of age. There are varieties that bear younger, but 
they also die younger. The old standards, such as the Baldwin, 
are long-lived trees that have a long youth as well as a long life. 

So it is with nearly all the best farm investments. Returns 
come slowly. Many an amateur at farming starts out with too 
rosy views and becomes discouraged at the expense and time 
before things have had a chance to pay. 

Cost of living on farms. Approximately half of the food of 
farm families is furnished by the farm at a cost much below 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 135 

what it costs in cities. The purchased food usually costs as much 
as, or more than, it does in cities. City water rent is very much 
cheaper than the cost of furnishing running water in the house 
on most farms. Light is cheaper in cities unless the farmer uses 
kerosene lamps, as they nearly all do. High-school education is 
often very expensive for farm children, because it is often neces- 
sary for the children to leave home and pay board, or a horse 
may have to be kept for the children to drive to school and this 
is very expensive even on a farm. The fact that food and house 
are cheaper on the farm makes the farm most attractive for per- 
sons with large families and small means, because such persons 
spend most of their money for food. The children can also be of 
much help in the farm work. At the same time the children not 
only receive the benefits that come from wholesome labor, but 
also learn much about plants and animals. Persons who have an 
income so large that food is not the chief item in the cost of liv- 
ing are likely to be disappointed in their expectations of a greatly 
reduced cost of living on farms. 

A farm a home enterprise. Farming is very different from 
most city occupations. The success of a farm is dependent on 
the entire family. All the members of the farm family take some 
part in the farm business. The women usually help by taking 
care of the hens and in some of the other farm work. They go 
to town to get farm supplies, often board some of the hired help, 
and usually take a considerable part in other farm operations at 
times of unusual pressure of farm work. They often direct the 
farm work during the absence of the head of the family. Chil- 
dren on farms practically always help with the work. There are 
many things that a small boy can do as well as a man. It is not 
of vital importance to the family whether one is a carpenter or a 
mason, but when one decides to be a farmer the family must be 
consulted, because farming is a family occupation. 

One of the primary advantages of a farm is its value as a 
place to bring up children. The farm provides a healthful and 
wholesome life. Children on a farm learn to take life and work 
seriously. They have the best form of apprenticeship by working 
with their parents. The reason why farm boys get along so well 



136 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

in cities is primarily that they have learned to take an interest in 
their work and have learned to stick to it even if they had rather 
not. Children who have grown up in idleness in a city do not 
often take kindly to the discipline of farm life. The family that 
can derive much of its pleasure from the labor on the farm has 
one of the most important qualifications for success in farming. 
The primary ways of overcoming the isolation of farm life are to 
derive pleasure from work and to be able to entertain oneself 
by reading. 

The many other advantages of farm life are fully discussed in 
the magazines. The purpose of this circular is not to discuss the 
advantages or disadvantages of being a farmer but to give some 
cautions to those who are going to start farming. 

First learn the business. There are several reasons why one 
may wish to buy a farm. One may desire to live on a farm while 
he continues his employment in the city. One may want a farm 
as a country home. Or one may desire a farm as a place on 
which to make a living — that is, a real farm. 

If the farm is to be a home only, it is of course desirable to 
know something about farming, but it is not necessary, because 
the living is made in some other business. The farm is not ex- 
pected to furnish the income ; but if the aim is to make farming a 
business, then one should learn the business before he invests 
money in it. The farm boy who goes to town starts in at the 
bottom and serves some time in subordinate positions before he 
enters business for himself. If a successful farmer should decide 
that he desired to go into the grocery business, he should begin 
in a subordinate position in order to learn the business. It would 
be very unwise for him to start by buying a store before he had 
had any experience. It is even more unwise for one who has 
never farmed to buy a farm before he knows anything about the 
business. The way to gain the necessary experience is to work 
for a farmer as a hired man. The failure to appreciate the neces- 
sity of an apprenticeship before starting farming is the reason why 
a circular such as this is needed. If prospective farmers were 
willing to learn something about the business before starting, they 
would not make the many errors that call for this advice. The 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 137 

almost universal error of the city man is overconfldence in his 
ability, and lack of appreciation of generations of farm experience. 

Selecting a farm. If an amateur hopes to make money by 
farming, he should go where the present farmers are prosperous. 
The cheap farms are a great attraction to many. But the inexpe- 
rienced person is the last one who should buy a poor soil. His 
lack of knowledge will be handicap enough without the addition 
of poor soil. When land sells for little, it is because in the expe- 
rience of the farmers of the region there is little or no profit in 
farming it. The newcomer who laughs at the present farmers in 
a poor region and thinks that they could do well if they would 
only follow his advice is an " easy mark " for the land agent. 
One may be sure that if the land is good, someone in the coun- 
try will have discovered it. Even in the poorest community, 
some farmers have plenty of ability. An absolute proof of this 
ability is the facility with which they can sell a poor farm to 
an overconfident prospector for several times its value. By all 
means, the prospective farmer should locate on a good farm in a 
prosperous community. His chances of success will be much 
greater, and if he fails as a farmer the capital in the farm can be 
recovered because such a farm is salable. 

It requires the intelligence and skill of the most experienced 
farmer to make a profit from poor soil. It is just such soil that is 
ordinarily sold to city persons and to persons from a distance. 
Good land sells readily to the neighboring farmers. It does not 
require advertising in order to make it sell. The poor land of the 
South is often sold to Northerners. The good land is readily 
salable to persons who know it. The poor land in New York is 
often sold to men from the West and to men from the cities. 
The good land does not have to hunt for a buyer. 

Land values for many miles from New York are based prima- 
rily on the home value rather than the value for farming. The 
movement for country homes has made much of the land double 
in price. Such land is sometimes a good speculation, as it may 
rise in price. It is often very desirable for those who wish a 
country home and who expect to continue in the city occupation. 
But if one wishes to make a living from the soil, it is much safer 



138 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



to go where the farmers who depend entirely on the farm are 
making good profits. 

The farm should have buildings that are sufficient for the 
purchaser's needs. Good land with buildings can be purchased 
for little more than new buildings would cost. But the buildings 
without good soil are useless. The prosperity of the farm depends 
on the soil. No matter how good the buildings are or how attrac- 
tive the view is, if the soil is not good the place is certain to prove 
a disappointment financially. One should not be misled by what 
can be done on the soil. A given amount of outdoors can be 
made a good soil if one has the money to spend, but to make 
it pay is a different problem. A good soil is one that nature 
made good. 

Large ci'ops do not necessarily pay. The beginner nearly 
always overestimates the importance of large returns per acre. 
Economy of land is usually much less important than economy 
of labor and other costs. From cost accounts on a number of 
New York farms, the following costs per acre were shown : 





Potatoes 


Oats 


Hay 




$4.42 
42.19 
22.00 


$4.09 

II. 15 

6.28 


#3-78 

4.49 

344 


Cost of man, horse, 


and equipment labor . . . 






$68.61 


$21.52 


'$11.71 





The use of land is about one sixteenth of the cost of growing a 
potato crop. It is less than a fifth of the cost of the oat crop and 
a third of the cost of a hay crop. By experience, the practical 
farmer has learned where to economize. He may not be able to 
express his views in terms of efficiency engineering, but a very 
large number of farmers have arrived at the correct practice. The 
writer is never favorably impressed by the amateur's large yields 
per acre unless he knows the cost. The way to make money on 
potatoes is to have the cost per bushel less than potatoes sell for. 
Fairly good crops are likely to be a help in reducing the cost of 
production, but phenomenal crops are likely to cost too much. 
The amateur is likely to figure how many cows he can keep on 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 139 

an acre by using the soiling system. The experienced farmer is 
not so much concerned with the cow population as he is with 
saving the labor cost. Economy in the use of labor of men and 
horses, and a reduction of the machinery cost, are more important 
by far than is economy in the use of land. When we arrive at the 
conditions of high-priced land and cheap labor of Europe, we will 
give relatively more attention to the saving of areas. 

There are some profitable farms that obtain very large receipts 
per acre ; these are usually with types of farming in which the 
expenditure per acre is also large. 

Correct types of farming. One who has traveled much is likely 
to be impressed by what is done in some other state and may 
want to try it in New York. He sees hogs eating corn in Iowa, 
and is likely to think that the New York farmer should raise as 
many as does the Iowa farmer. He buys an expensive steak, and 
concludes that beef would pay every New York farmer. Nearly 
all the pasture land in New York is already in use producing milk 
or raising dairy cattle. New York farmers have tried practically 
everything. The types of farming that have survived are the ones 
that have stood the test. 

Overinvestment in btrildings and machinery . In Livingston 
County, the investment in houses represents 14 per cent of the 
total capital in the farm business, including real estate equipment, 
live stock, and supplies. Certainly, one should hesitate to build a 
new home that represents much over a fifth of the capital. The 
house may be said to be a personal matter ; but if the investment 
goes much beyond this, it is too valuable a house for the farm. 

The average cost of barns per cow or equivalent in other 
animals was $70 in Livingston County. One who spends over 
$100 per cow should be sure that he is right. The interest, re- 
pairs, taxes, insurance, and other costs on such a building amount 
to about 8 to 10 per cent. The above limit would make an annual 
cost of $10 per cow for barn rent. One set of barns were built 
not long ago which were intended to be model barns for the 
neighbors. They cost $65,000 and were to house 65 cows. The 
barn rent per cow would be $100 a year. It takes a good cow to 
give $100 worth of milk at wholesale prices. There are many 



140 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

such examples in this state. Nearly all the so-called model barns 
are so expensive as to be impossible on a business farm. Hen 
houses ought not to cost much over $i per hen. At this cost, the 
hen must lay a half dozen eggs to pay her house rent. Many of 
the big poultry farms have such expensive buildings that the plant 
cannot possibly pay. 

The danger of overinvestment in machinery is even greater, 
for there are skilled agents whose business it is to make sales. 
The average farm in Livingston County has an investment in 
machinery of $6 per acre of crops. Many a farm of an amateur 
has ten times this amount. The machinery on a general farm 
ought not to cost over $10 per acre of crops. The complete cost 
of maintenance, housing, interest, repairs, and depreciation on 
farm machinery amounts to about 25 per cent of the inventory 
value. A $10 investment per acre of crops represents a cost of 
about $2.50 per acre per year. 

Raise crops first. The temptation of the beginner is to spend 
his first year or two in a complete revision of all buildings on 
the farm. Such changes nearly always cost twice the estimated 
amount. Unless one has a large amount of money, he is likely to 
find that when he gets his buildings ready he has no money left 
for farming. This mistake is a very natural one to make, because 
in cities, buildings in themselves are often a business. But on a 
farm the foundation of the business is the crops grown. The way 
to begin farming is to raise crops. If one cannot make a profit at 
this, he has no need for buildings. It is better to put off the 
desire for changes for a few years. One will then know better 
what he wants. He will also know whether he desires to remain 
on the farm. Money invested in buildings is rarely returned 
when one sells. 

Learn from the neighbors. The beginner should follow the 
practice of the best farmers of the region, for the first few 
years at least. In every community there are farmers who under- 
stand farming as well as the most successful railroad president 
understands railroads. The newcomer with his theories nearly 
always scorns the experience of the generations of farmers. He 
fails to realize how old a science agriculture is. The words of 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 141 

Dr. A. D. Hall, formerly Director of the Rothamsted Experiment 
Station, show the modest point of view to which he arrived as a 
result of his many years of scientific investigation. 

. . . Agriculture is the oldest and most widespread art the world has known, 
the application of scientific method to it is very much an affair of the day be- 
fore yesterday. Nor can we see our way to any radical acceleration of the turn- 
over of agricultural operations that shall be economical ; the seasons and the 
vital processes of the living organism are stubborn facts, unshapable as yet 
by man with all his novel powers. 

The newcomer fails to realize that in every prosperous farming 
community there are farmers with minds as keen as any industry 
can command. Manufacturing enterprises are so much under con- 
trol that the city man comes to have great faith that by the aid of 
science and business he can do what he wills. The farmer who 
has spent a lifetime trying to control the stubborn forces of nature 
is less confident of the powers of man and science. He has never 
seen two seasons exactly alike. His plans are every day subject to 
revision by the weather. He may be excused if his plans are not 
always clear-cut. 

Many public-spirited men of wealth desire to establish farms 
where, with the aid of college graduates as managers, they can 
show farmers the results of the application of scientific and busi- 
ness principles to farming. There are already examples in every 
county of farms that are demonstrating how best to farm under 
the circumstances. Furthermore, a demonstration of how to farm 
with unlimited capital is of little value to the tenant or the small 
owner whose chief problem is not to know what it would pay to 
do, but to know what to do with his limited means. The college 
graduate who wants to demonstrate how to farm can best do it 
by starting as other farmers start and making his money while 
he farms. 

The newcomer should at first humbly follow the example of the 
best farmers. Any attempt to be a model for the farmers nearly 
always results in amusement for them at the expense of the new- 
comer. After one has learned how to farm in the region, he may 
cautiously try new things if he has not by this time learned that 
they have already been tried and found unprofitable. 



142 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Starting as a young man without capital. A young man can 
take up any kind of business that he likes, and if he first prepares 
for the business and then works hard at it he may hope for suc- 
cess. The way to prepare for farming is by working as a hired 
man on a farm. Visiting on farms does not prepare one for farm- 
ing any more than visiting in town prepares one to be a banker. 
There is no way to learn to farm except by farming. It is an 
excellent thing for city boys to work as farm laborers during 
the summer vacation while they are in high school. 

It pays a young man to make a thorough preparation for any 
business before he goes into it. Such a preparation for farming 
includes work at an agricultural college as well as work as a farm 
hand. Neither one can take the place of the other. The work on 
a farm should precede the college work. It is a serious mistake 
for one who plans to farm to take a college course in agriculture 
before he has worked on a farm. There are many reasons why 
the farm work should come first. Not until one has worked on 
a farm does he know whether or not he wants to be a farmer. 
Many young men are quickly cured of any such desire as soon as 
they find out what farming means. The sooner such men find 
this out the better. Others like farming better than they expected 
to. It is a great mistake for parents, or anyone else, to try to 
make farmers out of young men who are not going to like farm- 
ing. When a young man is deciding what his life work is to be, 
he does not need blinders. 

A person who has never worked on a farm is not prepared to 
take a college course in agriculture. He will gain vastly more 
from such a course after he has had farm experience. The young 
man from the city should spend at least one full year on a farm 
before he takes such a course. Two years would be very much 
better. 

Farmers usually hire men after they have seen them. They do 
not ordinarily hire by correspondence. If one does not know 
where to get work, he should go to a farming community and 
start out in the country to look for work. He will usually get a 
temporary place if he looks as if he would not be afraid of work. 
At first an inexperienced city boy is rarely worth his board. As 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 143 

he learns how to be of use, and as it becomes safe to trust him 
with tools or stock, he will be worth a small wage. If one works 
well, he will usually be paid all he is worth by the farmer or by 
some neighbor who has observed his work. If the desire to farm 
still persists after a year or two of farm work, at least a short 
winter course should be taken at an agricultural college. If pos- 
sible it is very much better to take a regular four-year college 
course in agriculture. 

Farming for middle-aged persons. A decided change in busi- 
ness is always a hazardous undertaking for any but young 
men. The man who knows nothing about farming and who has 
a family to support should be very cautious about leaving good 
wages in a city and going to farming. Such changes have been 
made with great success, but there have also been many severe 
disappointments. 

One must learn the business before he can expect success in 
any occupation, and in any business it is rather difficult to make a 
living for a family while learning. Farming is manual labor. Very 
few persons make a success of farming who are not workers as 
well as managers, and these few persons nearly always come up 
through the labor experience. If a middle-aged person has never 
learned to do manual labor, such a change is still more difficult. 
If the members of such a family are very sure that they desire to 
go to farming, it is safer, if possible, to rent a small place in the 
country and continue with the city occupation. Some chickens 
and a cow can be kept, and a garden raised. The family can do 
most of this work. The small enterprises can be increased, and, 
if successful after a few years, it may be safe to leave the city 
work and go to farming. 

Another safe method of procedure for a man with a family and 
small means is to put his money in a savings bank and hire out 
as a farm hand for at least a year before any of the money is 
invested in farming. The amount of wages received will not be 
very large, but the danger of losing the entire capital through 
premature investment may be avoided. Until an able-bodied 
person is able to earn good farm wages for someone else, he is 
certainly not ready to direct a farm for himself — no more so 



144 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

than is a clerk ready to run a grocery store before he can earn 
good wages as a clerk in that store. 

The farm as a home. There are thousands of persons who live 
on farms and who continue with their city occupation. Living on 
a small place enables one to raise milk, vegetables, eggs, and fruit 
for home use and often some for sale. This greatly reduces the 
cost of living. It gives a chance to provide useful and wholesome 
work that is such a vital part of the training of children. One 
of the greatest helps in encouraging this manner of living is 
the locating of factories in small villages or towns where the 
workers can get out to the land. Trolley lines have given a great 
stimulus to this method of living. In the last ten years there has 
been a great increase in the number of such places. Railroad 
freight rates and freight accommodations have often been unfa- 
vorable for the small town. This has been one of the chief 
obstacles to a still greater extension of this excellent movement. 

Large farms and corporation farming. Large fortunes are usu- 
ally made either by speculation or by making a little profit from 
each of a large number of workers. Many large fortunes have 
been made by buying land when it was cheap and holding it until 
it became expensive. Other fortunes have been made by dealing 
in farm land. But straight farming very rarely creates even small 
fortunes. Only rarely is there a farm business that compares in 
size with large manufacturing plants. There are many reasons 
why "bonanza farms" or corporation farms do not often pay. 

The factory system is based on high-priced supervision. Most 
of the workers have only a few things to learn, and they are under 
close supervision. It is impossible to give close supervision to 
large farming enterprises because the workers are so scattered. 
For general farming, 40 to 80 acres of crops can be raised 
per worker. The number of men that might be gathered under 
one roof under the supervision of one superintendent would in 
farming be scattered over half a county. 

For nearly all farm operations it is necessary that each worker 
be intelligent and that he take an interest in the work. We can- 
not have a boss watching the man on a mowing machine. If some 
one has to watch the driver, he may as well replace the driver and 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 145 

do the work himself. There are a few operations at which gangs 
of men can be used, but there are very few cases in which a farm 
can make a continued use of a gang of men. It is very difficult 
to get men to take the necessary interest in large farms. If wages 
are high enough to attract men who will take an interest without 
close supervision, the high wages take all the profit. 

A profit of 10 to 20 per cent on the wages of each worker 
is a good profit in any industry. If the industry employs a very 
few men, the profits will be small. 

The expense of hauling crops and manure usually makes about 
600 acres the limit to run from one center. But for general 
farming this area with half the land in pasture is a business 
that, measured in workers, corresponds with a grocery store that 
employs two or three clerks and one or two delivery men. 

The prices of farm products are based on production by the 
farm family working as a unit. The hired help is usually boarded 
in the family at much less than it costs to hire it boarded. The 
women wash the milk pails, care for the chickens, go to town on 
errands. They very frequently take the place of a man at these 
light operations, and also very frequently help with farm work. 
In Delaware county, N.Y., on 210 of the rather large dairy farms, 
20 per cent of the milking and caring for cows was done by 
women and children. On the smaller farms the proportion of 
such labor is much more. All this labor is directly interested. 
When men are hired to run large farms, it is exceedingly diffi- 
cult to produce farm products at the same cost at which they are 
produced by the family-farm system. 

More conclusive than the reasons for failure are the results. 
Literally hundreds of successful business men scattered from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific have tried running large farms with hired 
managers. Most of these men have demonstrated their ability to 
make money in cities. The writer has seen many such farms in a 
number of states, but has not yet seen a case in which a man 
who made a fortune in a city has ever added to his accumulations 
by running a large farm with a hired manager. There are many 
cases in which the live stock has taken premiums innumerable 
and the crop yields have been all that could be desired, but the 



146 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

profits have always been book profits. No farm is a success that 
does not pay all expenses, a reasonable rate of interest, and good 
wages to the operator, and have enough money to provide for de- 
preciation. Many college graduates have undertaken the manage- 
ment of such farms. Formerly the writer recommended some of 
them for such places, but so far the writer has never seen an 
instance when such a farm paid. Yet these same college graduates 
have by the hundreds demonstrated their ability to make their 
own farms pay. Part of the difficulty is the erroneous attempt to 
apply the factory system to farming operations. Part of the diffi- 
culty is that the successful business man makes a fad of farming. 
He has too many theories to try out. 

Most of the big farms that are popularly cited as examples of 
business organization of a farm have a monthly check come out 
from the city to meet the pay roll. If the writer were free to give 
the names of some of the well-known places that have been run 
for years at a loss, many of which have been written up as great 
successes, the list would contain many surprises for the reader. 

Wealthy men who start farming with the idea of showing 
farmers how to farm often end by finding out some of the obsta- 
cles in the way of farming and joining with the farmers to work 
for their removal. By aiding in cooperation, in marketing, in 
obtaining railroad accommodations, and in having laws passed 
that give the farmer equal rights, such men have done much good. 
Farmers are no more and no less in need of education or uplifting 
than are merchants, bankers, mechanics, or any other class of 
our population. But farmers have been relatively too little heard 
in legislative halls. 

A successful business man may derive much pleasure from a 
country place. But if he hopes to make money by farming with 
a hired manager, he had best profit by the experience of others. 
The first few years are full of hope, for then all expenses can 
be charged to improvements, but there comes a time when the 
constant deficit is disconcerting. 

The writer is well aware of the fact that some large corporations 
are making money in farming or in enterprises closely associated 
with farming. He has probably visited as many such farms as 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 147 

has anyone. There are some large nurseries and seed houses and 
other large enterprises that are doing well. But these have usually 
grown by the direct management of their owners. Often several 
generations of the same family have developed the enterprise. 
Such enterprises have not often been successful when started by 
wealthy men from the city who depended on hired managers. 
About the only way in which such inexperienced men have often 
made successes has been in buying land and holding it for a rise 
in price. 

Even the large farms of the West where the farming is of the 
simplest kind are rapidly being broken up or rented. In order to 
manage a large tract of land profitably, it is necessary to have 
several centers, and the best method of management for the 
centers is to give the man a share in the returns, that is, rent the 
farm. The standard system of giving the worker a share in farm 
returns is to rent him the place for a share of the products. 

An even less hopeful kind of farming is the corporation that 
sells unit orchards or other parcels of land, when the buyer has 
nothing to do with the enterprise except to move onto the farm 
sometime in the future when the farm has been made to order 
and is to be producing a fine revenue. Such schemes profit 
from selling to city persons only. Farmers rarely make such 
investments, except when they are the promoters. Those who 
understand farming know better than to make such investments. 



IOWA AND BAVARIA CROP YIELDS PER ACRE 

AND PER MAN 

By E. A. Goldenweiser, United States Department 
of Agriculture 

(Published by permission of the Office of Farm Management) 

ENTHUSIASTS for higher yields per acre have frequently 
made the statement that the European farmer, by dint of 
careful work, makes his land yield a great more than does the 
American farmer. The defenders of American agriculture, on 
the other hand, maintain that the significant figure is not the 
yield per acre but the yield per man, since the farmer's standard 
of living depends on the income per man rather than per acre. 

It has been claimed, for instance, that while the Bavarian 
farmer produces seven times as much per acre as the Iowa 
farmer, the latter produces six times as much per man as the 
former. Such a comparison is significant because Iowa is repre- 
sentative of the best American agricultural practice and Bavaria 
is not far from the average for Germany. An examination of the 
yields per acre of wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, and hay 
shows that the yields in Bavaria are indeed somewhat higher than 
those in Iowa, the yield of wheat being 21.4 bushels in Bavaria 
(191 1) and 15.3 in Iowa (1909) ; the yields of oats, barley, and 
rye also being higher in Bavaria, while the potato yield in Bavaria 
was 138.5 bushels as compared with 86.8 bushels in Iowa, and 
the hay yield was 2.2 tons in Bavaria as compared with 1.6 tons 
in Iowa. Thus it appears that Bavaria has something of an ad- 
vantage over Iowa in yield per acre of the crops grown in both 
places, but this advantage is more than overcome by the fact that 
Iowa produces nearly 350 million bushels of corn, at the rate of 
37 bushels per acre, while Bavaria raises no corn at all. Owing 

148 



IOWA AND BAVARIA CROP YIELDS 



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150 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

to the high productivity of corn, it appears that when the yield 
per acre of all the important crops in both places is reduced to an 
equivalent in terms of feed units (= I lb. of corn or wheat), the 
production in Iowa is expressed by 1458 units per acre, while 
that in Bavaria comes to only 1191 units. The production of 
these crops does not, of course, comprise all of the agricultural 
activities of either locality, but it may perhaps be considered rep- 
resentative of actual conditions. The production in Iowa of the 
crops mentioned was 86,777 ^ ee d units per person engaged in 
agriculture, while that in Bavaria was 21,231 units per person so 
engaged ; the Iowa farmer, therefore, produced more than four 
times as much, man for man, as the Bavarian farmer. A table 
showing the basis of this discussion is appended. 

To sum up, Iowa has a natural advantage over Bavaria in that 
she can raise corn, but she has an even greater advantage in that 
the distribution of land and the methods of agriculture practiced 
by her farmers are such that the average person working on a 
farm in Iowa receives a return for his labor that is four times as 
great as that obtained by the peasant tilling the soil of Bavaria. 



II. AGRICULTURAL HISTORY 

A. EUROPEAN 
AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

By William Francis Allen 

IT SHOULD be observed in general that when we speak of 
the progress of agriculture during the five hundred years that 
have elapsed since the period which I am about to describe, 
the progress must be understood to consist rather in improved 
methods and a greater variety of crops than in care and thorough- 
ness of cultivation. The English estates in the fourteenth century 
were devoted to the production of a very few crops, of a quality 
no doubt far inferior to those of the present day, with clumsy 
and inefficient tools, by unskillful processes, and with no basis of 
scientific knowledge ; but, assuming all these deficiencies in mat- 
ters of detail, the cultivation was as a whole careful and system- 
atic. They made the most of what knowledge and facilities they 
had. It would probably be safe to say that at the present day, 
with all the unquestioned advance in processes and materials, 
there is more superficial and slipshod farming than there was 
five hundred years ago. Our opportunities are greater, and we 
get better results on the average ; but our better results are 
perhaps due to our superior opportunities more than to the use 
we make of them. 

I have said that the progress of agriculture in modern times 
has consisted mainly in improved processes and greater variety of 
crops. The first point of inquiry is, therefore, What crops were 
cultivated, and for what object ? Agricultural operations are de- 
signed either to supply the immediate wants of men in the 
production of food or to provide materials for manufactures ; or, 

151 



152 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

again, either of these classes of products may be exported to 
foreign countries in exchange for other commodities. The Wis- 
consin farmer produces wheat for immediate consumption, wool 
for manufacturing into cloth, and both wheat and wool for export. 
Now with these last two objects the medieval farmer had little to 
do ; neither manufactures nor commerce existed on a very large 
scale. Every country was in the main self-supporting ; that is, 
each provided by its own production for its own wants. And 
what is true of the country is also true in a degree of every estate. 
The estates, or manors, were large, embracing generally an en- 
tire township ; and each estate produced corn and meat for its 
own needs, brewed its own beer from its own barley, and wore 
garments made by its own women from the fleeces of its own 
sheep, purchasing whatever foreign articles it required with its 
surplus. 

Small communities like these, which had this habit of depend- 
ing almost exclusively upon their own productions, with no large 
and constant channels of exchange, and no facilities for quickly 
meeting sudden and unexpected demands, were liable to great 
fluctuations in the value of their products and to real suffering 
from deficient crops. Famines were frequent in those days, just 
as they are now in the remote parts of the East. In the five 
years from 1316 to 1320 wheat ranged from 4 J- to 16 shillings a 
quarter (of eight bushels). 

Manufactures, as a distinct branch of industry, hardly existed at 
this time, except in some parts of the Continent. And for the 
purpose of home manufacture the products required were few and 
simple. I have said that the estates were large, containing in 
general a whole township ; but this estate, or manor, contained a 
multitude of agricultural tenants of various grades, and a village, 
with its laborers and artisans, sufficient for all the simple require- 
ments of village life. The carpenter and the wheelwright were 
supplied with timber from the woods of the manor ; the herds of 
cattle furnished leather, the flocks of sheep furnished wool ; iron 
alone had to be purchased from outside. And there was scarcely 
any other material for manufacture needed ; wool was the almost 
exclusive wearing material, although for other purposes coarse 



AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 153 

cloths were made of hemp, and linen was always more or less in 
use, yet not very generally until the fourteenth century. There 
was likewise some production of dyestuffs. 

Neither did commerce make any large demands upon medieval 
agriculture. There was but one commodity of English production 
which was exported to any extent, and that was wool. England 
was at this period the great wool-producing country of northern 
Europe, its moist and equable climate peculiarly adapting it to 
grazing. This was exported chiefly to Flanders, which was the 
principal seat of the manufacturing industry ; but in the course 
of the fourteenth century numbers of Flemings — driven away 
by the disorders and misgovernment of their native land, and 
perhaps partly by the inundations upon their coast, and attracted 
by the prosperity and freedom of England — settled in the 
eastern counties and established woolen manufactories there — 
the commencement of the manufacturing industry which has 
raised England to its present wealth and power. 

Wool, therefore, was the one great staple of England, whether 
for manufacture or for export ; for home consumption too, so far 
as clothing is concerned. The raising of sheep, which had always 
been an important branch of industry, assumed large dimensions 
toward the close of the Middle Ages, and even encroached greatly 
upon operations which were more strictly agricultural in their 
nature. Neat cattle were also produced, and, for purposes of food, 
large quantities of swine — always the principal animal food in 
rural communities. The great oak and beech forests of England 
afforded sustenance for great herds of these. Their capabilities 
were carefully examined and recorded, and in every manor the 
woods are given as of fifty or a hundred or five hundred swine. 
The cattle of all kinds were small ; the average weight of oxen 
purchased for the royal navy in 1547 was 430 pounds, and this 
is no doubt about the average of the earlier centuries. The weight 
of a fleece of wool was rarely over 10 pounds. The dairy was 
also an important branch of industry, both for cheese and butter. 
It is a curious fact that butter, usually sold by the gallon, was con- 
siderably cheaper than lard and other animal fats — so much so 
as to be used for greasing wheels and for similar purposes. The 



154 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

cause of this relative cheapness must have been that the cattle 
were so small and ill-kept that they could not supply sufficient 
fat even for the needs of the farm. 

The common beverages were cider (proving a considerable 
degree of attention paid to the orchard) and beer (which, as 
hops were not cultivated until a later period, must have been thin, 
and quickly soured). One is surprised to find, not only in England 
but in various parts of the Continent in nearly the same latitude, 
frequent mention made of vineyards, and the production of wine 
in districts where now grapes will hardly grow. This appears to 
have been the result of a desperate effort to overcome the obstacles 
of nature and make English soil yield French products, for 
there is no evidence that the seasons have become more severe 
since that time. I find it mentioned, for example, that in the 
winter of 1 363-1 364 the most intense cold continued from 
December 7 to March 19; and even in the south of France 
wine is said to have frozen upon the table before it could be 
drunk — a statement which I for one will never believe. No 
doubt the "vineyards" in England at this period grew in great 
part out of the difficulty of transportation, and the meagerness of 
international trade, being merely designed to furnish wine for 
the necessary services of the church. It must be observed, how- 
ever, that the price of the native wine does not indicate a quality 
so very inferior to the imported. 

Before the introduction of cane sugar, honey was an important 
and valuable product. It was not only the only sweetening ma- 
terial used in antiquity and the Middle Ages, but out of it was 
made a favorite drink, mead. Bee-tending was, therefore, a con- 
siderable branch of rural economy, and not only for the honey, 
but also for the wax. Candles were almost exclusively employed 
for artificial light ; and while the poorer classes made use of 
tallow, the richer classes would have nothing but wax (sperm 
came in with the whale fisheries of modern times, and stearine 
and similar materials are purely the outgrowth of modern manu- 
factures). Moreover, as in the case of wine, wax candles were 
essential for the services of the church — another reason for the 
great attention given to bees. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 155 

None of the branches of industry which I have mentioned — 
neither cattle nor bees, nor the dairy — comes very directly into 
the field of agriculture in the strict sense of the word, that is, the 
tilling of the soil. When we turn to this, bearing in mind that we 
have under consideration an industry which produces neither for 
manufacture nor for commerce, but simply to supply its own 
wants, we are still struck by the meagerness of the objects of 
cultivation. They were the cereals and scarcely anything else ; 
no maize or buckwheat, no roots, clover, or artificial grasses (these 
came in in the seventeenth century), scarcely any fruits but apples 
and pears, although I find plums and cherries also mentioned. 

First, a few words upon the crops produced for the food of 
animals. The cattle grazed for the most part upon the natural 
pastures and the stubble, and this pasturage was, like everything 
else in medieval husbandry, managed and superintended with 
great care and precision. The number of animals which each 
person was entitled to keep upon the common pasture and the 
stubble was regulated generally in accordance with his share in 
the arable land ; tenure of arable land carried with it, usually, a 
specific and definite right of common. The custom was to allow 
each person to pasture as many animals as he had means to keep 
over winter. The preservation of the common for pasturage was 
an important matter, and I find it distinctly provided, in a docu- 
ment defining the rights of common, that no tree shall be planted 
upon the land, unless to take the place of one which should 
perish by decay. After the crops were harvested, the fences were 
removed and the stubble thrown open to pasture. In regard to 
this, I find a by-law laid down in one manor, for which I cannot 
understand the reason, that from Ascension Day to Christmas 
no mares with foals or cows with calves should feed upon these 
stubbles, under the penalty of a fine. 

In the mild winters of Europe, especially in southern England, 
pasturage is hardly suspended altogether during any part of the 
winter ; nevertheless, there must have been more or less stall- 
feeding at this season, even here, and the hay crop was an impor- 
tant one. As I have already said, there was no clover or artificial 
grass ; all the more valuable were the natural meadows, which, in 



156 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the descriptions of estates, are always specified with great exactness, 
as are the services in harvesting. Just so it was in the early settle- 
ment of New England ; the broad meadows, with their coarse wild 
grass, furnished the only supply of winter food for cattle, and were 
an essential part of every farm. Peas, beans, and vetches were largely 
cultivated in the Middle Ages for the food of cattle and horses. 

Let us pass now to the principal crops, the cereals which 
formed almost the sole object of the purely agricultural operations. 
No doubt the implements were rude and clumsy, and the proc- 
esses unscientific ; nevertheless these were not at the lowest 
stage. The English plow, in the Middle Ages, to judge from con- 
temporary pictures, was a heavy, two-handled article, often with a 
very large wheel, or pair of wheels, to help support and guide it. 
The manuring of the land was probably not very thorough or sys- 
tematic, although both marl and dung are mentioned, and direc- 
tions are given that the manure be covered, so that its qualities be 
not washed away in the rain. It was common to manure land by 
penning the sheep upon it ; and it was a usual prerogative of feudal 
lords to require their serfs to keep their sheep in folds upon the 
lord's land (the so-called jus foldae). As to the use of dung and 
marl, I find in a writer of the day some elaborate and mysterious 
rules which I find it very hard to comprehend, and those which 
I can understand I am informed are mostly nonsense. 

There was a regular system of fallows, and in connection with 
it a rude rotation of crops, but not, it may be supposed, in any 
sense a scientific rotation, designed to recuperate the powers of 
the land by the qualities of different crops. It was only that cer- 
tain of the cereals were best sown in the fall and others in the 
spring, and it was more convenient to sow the spring corn in the 
field used the previous year for the winter crop than to continue 
each crop upon the same land. There were various systems of 
rotation in use, but far the most common was that known as the 
three-field system, in which the arable lands were divided into 
three large fields, for the purpose of a triennial rotation. In the 
so-called "tenement lands," which were occupied and cultivated 
by the peasants for themselves, but as tenants of the lord of the 
manor, each peasant had a strip in each of these fields — a 



AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 157 

long, narrow strip, such as is seen everywhere on the continent 
of Europe, and in this country in the French settlements along 
the St. Lawrence. Each peasant had his strip by himself, sepa- 
rated from that of his neighbor by a narrow baulk of turf ; but he 
must cultivate it as the rest did — in the winter field he must put 
in winter corn, in the summer-end field summer corn, and the 
fallow field must lie fallow like those of his neighbors. For, as I 
have said, after the crop was gathered, the fences were removed 
and the cattle admitted into the fields to feed upon the stubble 
and the baulks of turf, of course no one person could be allowed 
to interfere with the fencing and the pasturage of the community. 
Fences were therefore, at this time, for the most part, temporary 
rail fences, put up when the crop was planted and removed when it 
was harvested, as is the case in parts of the South. The hedgerows, 
which are so characteristic a feature of England at the present 
day, did not come into general use until towards the close of the 
Middle Ages. I find, however, in the fourteenth century, directions 
given in regard to hedges, that they should be of willow or white 
thorn — showing that they were not uncommon as early as this. 

We have, therefore, as a general rule, a triennial rotation of 
crops, consisting for the first year of winter grain (wheat or rye), 
the next year of summer grain (oats or barley), while the third 
year the land lay fallow. 

It must be understood that the year began at Michaelmas (Sep- 
tember 29), which appears to have been the regular term for all 
agricultural operations, as it still is, I believe, in England. The 
year began at once, then, with putting in the seed for the winter 
crop ; for this the ground had been prepared by a year of fallow, 
and by a threefold plowing. The first plowing, called the ' ( plow- 
ing of the fallow " (wareetatio), was regularly in April " when the 
ground is broken " {mm terra fregerit) , meaning, I suppose, when 
it is dry enough to crumble and not clog the plow. Then after 
midsummer came the " stirring " (rebinatio), as it is called, " when 
the seeds have sprung up after the fallow plowing " (aim terra 
pullulave fit post ware c turn). This, it was said, should not be too 
deep — only enough to destroy the weeds. In the autumn manure 
was spread upon the land, and it was plowed a third time for the 



158 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

crop — this time two ringers' breadths deeper, with broad and close 
furrows. Without being acquainted with the laws of chemistry 
these men knew by experience that the ground, when lying fallow 
and open, absorbed valuable ingredients from the rain and the air. 

After the winter crop was harvested, the land was thrown open 
for grazing, until the next crop was to be put in. This stubble 
pasture amounted to more than might seem, for to say nothing of 
the green baulks of turf, which in one estate were estimated to 
amount to eighty acres, it was the custom, in reaping the grain, 
only to clip off the ears, leaving the straw standing ; then to 
cut whatever straw was needed for thatching and other purposes, 
after which the cattle were turned into the field to feed upon the 
remainder. The next spring the summer crop was sown, and again, 
after this was harvested, the cattle were allowed to pasture upon the 
stubble until the following spring, when the plowing of the fallow 
commenced the preparation of the ground for the winter crop. 

The plowing was usually done with oxen, commonly eight to 
a team. Horses were used, but their labor was more expensive ; 
moreover, with the imperfect drainage of the time, the labor of 
horses was not considered so well suited to heavy, muddy land. 
A writer of the fourteenth century recommends using a pair of 
horses with a team of oxen, as being quite as efficient except in 
rocky land, and a good deal more economical. 

The yield was small. This same writer speaks of a threefold 
yield as t something unusual, but as certainly not remunerative. 
Allowing to the acre two bushels of seed, at I2d., and reckoning 
the three plowings at i8d., the harrowing at I d., weeding at I qr., 
reaping at 5 d., and teaming at 1 d., a yield of six bushels, he says, 
will be a dead loss of 3 qr., unless some profit can be made out of 
the straw. This statement is corroborated by the statistics collected 
by Professor J. H. T. Rogers, in his V History of Agriculture and 
Prices." For seed, two bushels of wheat and rye go to the acre ; 
four of barley and oats ; and the yield ranged from twice to 
eight times the seed, that is, from four to sixteen bushels of 
wheat, and the other crops at about the same proportion. 

I have spoken chiefly of agriculture in England, that being the 
country in regard to which we have the best information. It would 



AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 159 

appear that in France and Germany agricultural science was some- 
what less advanced ; in the south of Europe it was in a much higher 
condition, as might be expected from the greater advancement of 
these nations in the other departments of civilization. We find in 
Italy during the Middle Ages agricultural improvements which in 
the more northern countries belong only to modern times. 

The great obstacles to agricultural progress were two : the 
simplicity of medieval life, which was satisfied with a few gross 
products, and the artificial restrictions of society, which hampered 
all individuality and enterprise. 

The first of these obstacles was removed by the rapid growth 
of the cities in population, wealth, and power, a growth which 
belongs mainly to the fourteenth century. The rich burghers — 
plebeians as they were — were not satisfied with the coarse, un- 
varied fare of a baron's table, nor with the homespun garments 
of wool and hemp. Commerce began to supply them abundantly 
with the wines, silks, and spices of the South and the East, and 
home productions were likewise more delicate and varied. The 
extravagance and luxury which characterized the closing years 
of the Middle Ages had at least this good result, that they gave 
a powerful stimulus to every branch of production. From this 
new city life begins the first decisive progress in agriculture. 

The second obstacle was also removed, but more slowly. With 
the breaking up of feudalism serfdom, its natural companion, 
perished too ; but the process was a slow one, and in many 
parts of Europe serfdom, instead of being mitigated with the new 
life of modern times, was made more harsh and burdensome. 
Still slower to disappear was the control over modes of cultivation 
exercised by the communities, with their constrained cultivation in 
common. In some parts of western Europe these usages have 
not even yet disappeared ; in eastern Europe they are in full 
operation to this day. 

I have shown, I think, that with all its shortcomings, medieval 
agriculture was not at so very low a stage. Unscientific as it was, 
it was nevertheless careful and faithful ; no one can look over 
the registers and rent rolls of the English manors of the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries without being convinced that their 



160 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

proprietors were not altogether the harsh tyrants nor the serfs the 
abject wretches which we are wont to imagine. Different countries 
differed much from one another, and nowhere were the poor safe 
from violence and insolence ; for some countries and some periods 
the blackest colors are none too dark to describe the abuses of 
feudalism. But England — with the rarest exceptions — was at 
all times a land of law ; the serf was a freeman towards all but 
his lord, and even towards his lord he had legal rights which he 
could enforce in the courts. 

In truth, the peasantry of Europe — at least, of France and Eng- 
land — appears to have been on the whole better off at the close 
of the thirteenth century than for many generations after. The 
grossness and violence of the feudal times were past ; society was 
becoming settled and orderly ; the bonds of serfdom were relaxed, 
and free institutions were rapidly springing up ; England was 
governed by an able, vigorous, constitutional king (Edward I) ; 
commerce and manufactures were just entering upon that career 
which has given such marvelous results in our day. The unjust 
and bloody international wars of the fourteenth century ; the re- 
lentless civil wars which accompanied them ; the overthrow of free 
institutions in the fifteenth century ; the religious wars and perse- 
cutions of the sixteenth century ; the wholesale depreciations of 
the currency, by which the kings plundered their subjects ; the 
building up of enormous estates in England, with the unwise poor 
laws, which gave the finishing stroke to the ruin' of the peasantry; 
in France the crushing of all freedom and individuality ; in Ger- 
many the surrendering of all power into the hands of a multitude 
of petty princes — all these things resulted in an almost steady 
depression of the peasantry in both intelligence and prosperity, 
until very nearly our own day. 

We are in fact inclined to boast over much of the enlighten- 
ment of the nineteenth century. I am far from being disposed to 
question this enlightenment or the progress not only in material 
arts and physical science but in thought and civilization. But we 
should not forget that the European peasantry were the last to 
receive their share of the gains ; and on the other hand it is well 
for us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to 



AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 161 

think, or to fancy that our fathers, five hundred years ago, lived 
like the beasts of the field. Hard as was their lot, even the serfs 
of that period lived in a condition of comfort on the whole greater 
than that of their descendants of the last century. And the free 
agricultural laborers, who lived upon their daily earnings, had a 
better prospect before them than those of the present day ; it was 
easier for them to lay up money and become the owners of 
land, and thus rise in the social scale. 

It is a difficult thing to compare the condition of people at 
widely distant periods of time. The standard of living changes — 
the poorest of us demand comforts now which the richest could 
not afford five hundred years ago. The objects of consumption 
change — cotton, coffee, potatoes, and numerous other indispensa- 
bles of the present day, were then utterly unknown. The value of 
money changes, — the English shilling of 1 300 had three times 
the amount of silver in it that the present one has ; and, what is 
of still more importance, silver has fallen enormously in value, 
through the discovery of the American mines. The quality of 
things changes — how can we compare the coarse wool, mixed 
with hair, of the fourteenth century, with the fine merino which 
we wear ? Add to this that the laborers of the Middle Ages, from 
their relation to the manor, enjoyed a great many perquisites in 
the way of wood, pasture, rent, extra food, etc. — just like the 
freed slaves upon the Southern plantations, — which are hard to 
take into account with any definiteness and which yet complicate 
the account materially. Nevertheless a few statistics in compar- 
ing the mode of life at the two periods may be of interest if we 
are careful to bear in mind that the comparison is only approxi- 
mately accurate. I take the year 1 300, because it was before any 
depreciation of the currency, and before the social revolution 
caused by the great plague of 1348. 

A day laborer at the close of the thirteenth century received 
on an average about 3 d. a day, which, in American silver, is equal 
to about 1 8 cents ; the laborer of the present day in England 
receives, I believe, on an average about 2 s. a day (equal to 50 cents 
of our money), nearly three times the amount of the earlier wages. 
Taking, now, a few of the principal objects of consumption, we 



1 62 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

find that the bushel of wheat then averaged about 7-i-d. (47 cents); 
and at the present day perhaps 6s. ($1.50); barley, per bushel, 
then, 6d. (35 cents), now, 4 s. 6d. ($1.12^-); fowls, then, i-Jd. 
apiece (9 cents), now, 5 s. (#1.25); geese, then, $±d. (21 cents), 
now, 9s. ($2.25); butter, then, id. (3 cents), now is. 6d. 
(37I cents); wool, then, 3d. (18 cents), now, I2d. (25 cents). So 
that while money wages are not quite three times as high, corn 
is a little over three times as high and butter and poultry have 
risen enormously ; wool, however, was then relatively dear, prob- 
ably because of the great foreign demand. As to meat, it is hard 
to make the comparison, because it was not quoted by the pound. 
Professor Rogers 1 estimates it (p. 684) at id. a pound (less than 
two cents); cows averaged about 8s. (J 10.00), and sheep about 
is. (75 cents); no doubt they were very small, as were perhaps 
the fowls and geese. Of other articles, 1000 herrings cost 2 s. 
iod. ($2.12!), — I find them now quoted at ^3 ($15), — eggs 
cost 4d. for 10 dozen (5 for a cent); wine, 4d. a gallon 
(25 cents) ; pepper, is. 6d. a pound ($i.i2±-) ; a shirt cost 5|d. 
(35 cents) ; an axe, 8d. (50 cents) ; a hoe, 2ld. (15 cents) ; and 
a plow, is. (75 cents). 

Cloth, as might be expected from the price of wool, was dear ; 
but then we must, remember that most peasants kept their own 
sheep, and made their own cloth. Coarse woolen cloth was quoted 
at 1 s. 2d. (87I cents) a yard (apparently a yard and a half wide) ; 
a pair of boy's shoes at 4d. (25 cents). 

From all these facts I think it is clear that the English laborer 
of the fourteenth century, especially ^when we take into account 
the various small perquisites that were attached to his semi-servile 
condition, had a much greater command of the necessaries of 
life than his modern representative. Clothing was dearer, but 
bread was cheaper, and meat and all other necessary commodities 
were very much cheaper, in proportion to his wages. And what 
is true of the day laborer is true in a still higher degree of the 
small farmer, for to him, a producer of wheat and wool, the high 
price of these articles was a positive gain. ' 

1 Professor J. E. T. Rogers, " History of Agripulture and Prices." 



INCLOSURES IN ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH 

CENTURY 

By Edwin F. Gay 
(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XVII, p. $j6, November, 1902) 

TEN years ago Professor Ashley gave us with his valuable 
chapter on the Agrarian Revolution the first map of the in- 
cisures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.' This pioneer 
attempt at a graphical representation of one of the most interest- 
ing and important movements in English social history was based 
on the scanty local references in contemporary literature and on 
the agricultural surveys of the eighteenth century. From the 
inadequate evidence then at hand this map necessarily left much 
to be desired. In the interval, however, new and fuller sources 
have been opened and in part made accessible by publication. 
And, though this fresh evidence can scarcely be termed ade- 
quate, nevertheless, with its more precise data, it permits of a 
new attack upon the problem of the extent of the inclosure move- 
ment in England during this period. A new map, in some 
respects materially correcting the former and suggesting a some- 
what different estimate as to the magnitude of the agrarian 
change, may now be constructed with the materials furnished 
by contemporary official investigations. 

The material herewith presented bases itself solely, therefore, 
upon the information gathered by government commissioners sent 
out under the influence mainly of successive waves of popular 
discontent. They collected the presentments of local juries as to 
the depopulation and decline of tillage caused by the inclosure of 
the open fields of the old agricultural system and by the con- 
version from arable to pasture of the land thus hedged in. These 
investigations or inquisitions were made in the years 15 17-15 19, 

163 



1 64 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

1548, 1566, and 1607. 1 The inquiries of 1548 and 1566 were 
apparently not pushed very far. At any rate we now possess for 
that of 1548 but a few meager notes from Warwickshire and 
Cambridgeshire, 2 while the inquisition of 1566, with trifling data 
from Leicestershire, gives only enough from Buckinghamshire to 
indicate the steady progress of the movement for this region in 
the mid-century. 3 But the two inquisitions of 1517-1519 and of 
1607, each covering a retrospective period of some thirty years, 
furnish a considerable amount of serviceable material. Of the 
first of these, the larger and more important part, edited by 
Mr. Leadam, has been published by the Royal Historical Society ; 
the second still awaits publication. Though some part of the work 
of these commissioners is now, through time and neglect, either 
lost or indecipherable, there is reason to believe that the lacunae 
are inconsiderable, at any rate cannot materially affect the general 
conclusions that may be drawn from the map and the statistical 
tabulations founded upon these documents. There are preserved 
either in abstract or in full the presentments for twenty-three 
counties returned to Chancery by the commissioners of 1517- 
1 5 1 9, 4 and, though the extant returns of 1 607, now in the Record 
Office in London, give evidence from but six counties, these six 
are in the Midlands, the center of the inclosing activity of the 
period. The entries in these returns supply normally the names 
of the offenders responsible for the decay of farmhouses or for 
the inclosure and conversion to pasture of arable land, the place 

1 I do not include the commission of 1636. The Public Record Office in 
London contains the accounts of compositions made by inclosers as a result 
of this commission, but the returns upon which these compositions were based 
have not yet been found. 

2 The Warwickshire entries are printed from Dugdale's MSS. in Leadam's 
"Domesday of Inclosures," 1897, Vol. II, pp. 656, 666. The Cambridge present- 
ments (C. H. Cooper, "Annals of Cambridge," Vol. II, p. 38), are probably to 
be referred to this commission. 

3 I have also entered upon the map the few items concerning Middlesex pre- 
served in a jury presentment of 1 556. Hist. MSS. Com., Vol. XV, Pt. II, pp. 258 ff. 

4 Mr. Leadam has published the Lansdowne abstracts for ten counties in 
the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1892-1894, and the original 
Chancery returns for nine additional counties in his " Domesday of Inclosures." 
Returns for four more counties have since come to light. See my list in Trans- 
actions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. XIV, p. 238, n. 2. 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 165 

and the date of such offense, the acreage of the land affected, 
and other details, such as the number of persons evicted and the 
number of plows laid down, which did not fall strictly within 
the scope of their inquiry. The intention was to gather the 
information necessary for prosecution under the Husbandry Act 
of 1490 (4 Henry VII. C. 19) and the subsequent similar statutes ; 
and while at times, notably in the case of large and heinous 
inclosures, more detail is given than the law required, as a rule 
less is given than the modern student of Tudor social history 
would desire, sometimes, it must be added, too little for the legal 
purposes of statutes which even contemporary lawyers found 
obscure and labyrinthine. Recourse must be had, therefore, to 
interpretation and inference. A considerable number of the 
entries, for instance, present simply the decay of a house of 
husbandry possessing twenty or more acres of land, — the specific 
offence under the Act of 1490, — no mention being made of an 
inclosure or of conversion to pasture. But there can be little 
doubt, both from the words of the statutes, from the evidence of 
subsequent legal proceedings initiated under these presentments, 
and from contemporary complaint that this destruction of farm- 
houses, as a rule, tacitly implied an accompanying inclosure of the 
farmhold for grazing purposes. It would probably, however, be 
too sweeping an inference to treat all such entries as cases of 
inclosure and conversion. A certain limited proportion of the 
presentments are doubtless to be taken as meaning what they say 
with no further implication, simply that a farmhouse has been 
emptied of its husbandmen, and the land usually held with it has 
been "severed" from its house, — a word usual in the inquisition 
of 1607, — and consolidated with other holdings in the unchanged 
open fields. But the combined process, the emptying the house 
of its farming tenants, the consolidation and hedging in severalty 
of its appurtenant acres, and the laying down of this land to grass, 
was no doubt the "decay" aimed at by popular outcry and 
legislative action. Interpretation of the inquisitions in this sense 
seems, therefore, in the main justifiable. Yet it is not only 
conceivably possible, but probable, that the different steps in this 
process were occasionally separated in practice. As has just been 



1 66 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

remarked, there could be eviction or eviction and decay of the 
house simply or accompanied by a severaling of open-field strips 
without inclosure and without conversion, and vice versa there 
could be inclosure or even inclosure and conversion (under a 
convertible husbandry) without the decay of a husbandman's house. 
Decay might be associated with conversion to pasture without new 
inclosure, not only in the old inclosed districts, but, if the returns 
of 1607 are to be trusted, in the open-field country. In view of 
these complications it has seemed advisable, in constructing the 
inclosure map, to summarize results as little as possible, and by 
the use of a number of distinctive signs, even at the risk of taxing 
eyesight and patience, to give a full and unbiased graphical 
translation of the record. But, in the accompanying table, pre- 
senting in abbreviated form some of the statistical results of an 
analysis of the returns of 15 17 and 1607, I have preferred not to 
burden the page with the minuter distinctions of tabulation. The 
subjoined figures illustrating the extent of the inclosure movement 
will be confined, therefore, to the acreage affected in each county, 
with its percentage of the total land area of the county, the number 
of villages or hamlets from which returns are forthcoming, the 
number of houses of husbandry decayed or turned into cottages 
with little or no land, and, finally, the number of persons men- 
tioned as displaced by the agricultural change, though, owing to 
the variable character of the returns in regard to this last item, 
the figures are of inferior value. 

To those acquainted with what has been already published of 
these inquisitions, it scarcely needs remark that any statistical 
tabulation of their data must be open to cavil. Historical statistics 
at best are rarely satisfactory, and the entries which in this instance 
furnish the raw material are themselves often so vague or deficient 
that statistical deductions, though made in each individual case 
with the most cautious objectivity, leave a residuum of misgiving. 
It is often difficult, for example, to determine whether entries 
found in the supplementary inquisitions of 15 18 are or are not 
duplicates of those of the returns of 15 17. Virgates and caru- 
cates must be reduced to acres by some kind of a county average. 
Texts that are in part illegible or obscurely worded must be 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 167 




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elucidated. These are but a few of the many perplexities. But, 
with all allowance made for deficiencies of text and errors of 
interpretation, the totals for the first inquisition of 15 17 may at 
any rate be taken as a minimum estimate of the inclosures of the 
period 1485-15 17 and as a fair index of the relative extent of the 
movement in different sections of England. 

The temptation lies near to attempt, by utilizing these partial 
results as a basis, to form some rough general notion of the 
whole progress of the agrarian change down to 1607. But, in 
yielding to it, the rather hazardous nature of the venture must 
be clearly kept in mind. Three gaps in our table must be filled, 
the period of at least thirty years before 1485, the sixty-year 
span between 15 18 and 1577, and the thirty years from 1578 to 
1607 in those counties for which we have returns in 15 17 but 
not in 1607. What shall be the conjectural estimate of the 
rate of the movement's progress during these intervals, — was 
it equal to that from 1485 to 15 17, or was it greater or less? 
We have, again, in the second place, figures from twenty-four 
counties. Shall a hypothetical increment be added for possible 
inclosures in the sixteen English counties not represented in 
either of the two chief official inquiries ? And, if we are mainly 
to operate, as we must, with the statistical results of the inqui- 
sition of 1 5 1 7, even supposing that we possess practically all the 
work of the commissioners, can we be at all sure that they did 
their work thoroughly, that they did not overlook or have con- 
cealed from them or even themselves conceal or palliate a con- 
siderable number of inclosure cases ? Can any reckoning, to ask 
this third question, be made of a coefficient of error, intentional 
or otherwise ? To the second and third queries, as far as any 
statistical valuation is concerned, the answer must be a non 
possumus. For the first, and for any merely general anwer to 
the other questions, we are reduced to surmises — to an uncer- 
tain balance of probabilities derived from the vague evidence of 
contemporary literature and legislation or from a few inade- 
quate statistical data. A consideration here in detail of these 
doubts would take us too far afield; it must suffice to state 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 169 

the conclusions or impressions which have seemed to justify the 
method adopted. 1 

Regarding the impeccability of the inclosure commissioners, it 
may be granted at once that, despite Wolsey's undoubted zeal 
stimulating their efforts, they likely enough failed to gather in 
their net all the offenders of the preceding thirty years. We 
know too well the character of the local juries of the time, the 
nature of the pressure which the great landholders could exert, to 
have implicit faith in the full reliability of their presentments. 
Such pressure, especially in opposition to a Tudor royal commis- 
sion, would sedulously avoid publicity ; direct evidence of tamper- 
ing with juries would in any specific instance not now be easy to 
obtain. But some slight evidence has come down to us concerning 
these very inquisitions, and we are not left to mere suspicion. 
Furthermore, it is often noticeable that pains were seemingly 
taken to remove the sting from the entries which pointed to the 
commissioners as themselves transgressing. But that such entries 
were made at all, that they were only rendered legally harmless 
instead of being suppressed outright, has a certain significance. 
On the whole, it may, I think, fairly be doubted that any con- 
siderable suppression or perversion of fact was attempted. The 
allowance for this element of error need not be far-reaching. 
There exists, however, in any case no sufficient basis for a 
numerical estimate of this factor in the problem. 

The same holds true to some extent of the second doubtful 
element, the possibility that counties not represented in our list 
may have contributed some noteworthy quota to the sum total of 
inclosures, though here we are on somewhat firmer ground. It is 
probable that in some of these sixteen counties a certain amount 
of inclosure was going on, but there is little outside evidence of it. 
The dean of Durham was doubtless indulging in the usual exag- 
geration of the time when he wrote, in 1597, that in the bishopric 
of Durham V 500 plows have decayed in a few years" and "of 

1 A fuller discussion of the points here raised will be found in a forthcoming 
issue of Schmoller's Forschungen, where I deal at length with the question of the 
extent of the inclosure movement. 



170 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

8000 acres lately in tillage now not eightscore are tilled," * but it 
is evident that at least towards the close of the century the move- 
ment, or something very like it, was spreading northward to a 
region untouched by the official investigations. Closer examina- 
tion, however, shows that most of these sixteen counties really 
lay outside the sphere of the inclosure movement of this period. 
They belonged in large measure to the old inclosed country, 
where the agricultural system was radically different from that of 
the open-field districts, a country where inclosures had prevailed 
from a time long anterior to this movement of the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. To these old inclosures we must later briefly 
revert. For the present we have simply to note that they do not 
enter as a disturbing factor in our estimate with a weight of which 
we need or can take account. 

The third question as to the rate of progress remains. Pro- 
fessor Ashley limits the " precipitate change " for this period to 
the sixty years between 1470 and 1530. "After about 1530," he 
says, "the movement somewhat slackened." 2 Dr. Cunningham, 
on the other hand, speaks of the " rapid progress of enclosures " 
towards the middle of the century, and gives a modified adhe- 
sion to the view widely held that the change of ownership 
at the dissolution of the monasteries gave a new impetus to the 
movement. 3 The former of these opinions rests largely upon a 
misapprehension as to the nature of the old inclosed districts, 
the latter has little substantial evidence to support it. Such evi- 
dence as there is, however, points to the conclusion that there was 
no perceptible slackening throughout the century. Not only do we 
witness an undiminished volume of contemporary complaint, a 

1 Cal. S. P. Dom. Eliz., 1595-1597, p- 347- In a later letter (p. 348) the "few 
years " become fifty years. " In Northumberland," he adds, " great villages are 
dispeopled," and. these decays (p. 542) "are not, as supposed, by the enemy, 
but private men have dispeopled whole villages." About the same time, Tobie 
Matthew, bishop of Durham, is urging on Lord Burghley the revival of the 
statutes for tillage (Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of the Marquis of Salisbury, 
Vol. VII, p. 453). The Agricultural Survey of 1810 dates the first inclosures in 
Durham from 1658 (p. 86). 

2 Ashley, Introduction to English Economic History, Vol. I, Pt. II, p. 286. 

3 Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, etc., 3d ed., Vol. I, p. 531. 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 171 

continued agitation and repeated efforts at investigation and re- 
pressive legislation, but we have the supporting testimony of the 
unpublished inquisition of 1566 for Buckinghamshire and of a 
long series of prosecutions against inclosers under the Elizabethan 
Tillage Act of 1563. The Buckinghamshire returns cover but 
five of the eight hundreds of the county, and, so far as can be 
made out from the often vague dating of the entries, deal with 
comparatively recent offences, probably with those occurring 
within less than ten years instead of the thirty of the more 
important inquiries of 15 17 and 1607. Yet even with these 
limitations it tells of 4065 J- acres as affected by the inclosures 
in 50 towns of this single county. We seem to be dealing with 
a movement which at least from the middle of the fifteenth 
century was gradually but steadily acquiring momentum, and 
the figures for the period 1485-15 17 may be used as a basis 
of reckoning, with no fear of thereby overestimating the amount 
of inclosure. 

There is, indeed, more than a likelihood that any result so 
obtained will err in somewhat underestimating the acreage affected 
by the agricultural change. But for the rough approximation 
which is all we can hope to obtain it may sufficiently serve the 
purpose to construct a conjectural table from the known figures of 
the 15 17 inquiry. We may assign a hypothetical figure for the 
thirty years preceding 1485, say an acreage equal to the returns 
from 1485 to 1499. Acting on the presumption that in the sixty 
years from 1 5 18 to 1577 the rate of inclosing was at least equal 
to that of the period 1485-15 17, we may double this known 
acreage, or, in the case of the six counties for which we have the 
acreage for the thirty years 1 578-1607, we may take the sum of 
the two periods. Finally, in the case of the eighteen counties re- 
ported on in 1 5 17, and not in 1607, we insert the earlier figures, 
and obtain the following conjectural results. The purely inferred 
totals in the table are indicated by italics. 

Hypothetical as these figures are and somewhat underestimat- 
ing the amount of inclosure as they probably do, they neverthe- 
less, I venture to believe, bring us appreciably nearer the actual 



172 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 





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INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 173 

facts than any notions based upon the unsatisfactory evidence of 
the sixteenth-century literature, hitherto our main reliance. It is, 
I repeat, probably under rather than over the truth to say that in 
the century and a half before 1607 something over half a million 
acres of cultivated land were taken out of the hands of the tillers 
of the soil, and inclosed for sheep pasture. But, granting freely 
to the arguments for an extent of inclosure larger than our figures 
indicate all the consideration they deserve, the estimate could still 
be considerably increased and yet be far from supporting the 
extravagant assertions of contemporary and of modern writers. In 
truth, all the literary evidence of the period must be treated with 
a mistrustful caution. Its very exaggeration condemns it. It is 
impossible to believe that by the first quarter of the sixteenth 
century the population by reason of these inclosures had been 
"inestimably" diminished 1 and "mervaylous multitudes " 2 reduced 
to beggary and crime, that at the close of another quarter of a 
century two thirds of the land of England were untilled and in 
" marvelous desolacion," 3 when still each later generation reported 
that inclosing and its attendant depopulation were proceeding upon 
an unexampled scale. To cite but single specimens of these 
reports, Pilkington (shortly before 1 575)/ the Parliament of 1597, 5 
Powell, in 1636, 6 were convinced, in the words of the last, that the 
evil was never " so monstrous, never so great." The statements 
of the men who witnessed the inclosing movement cannot, 
unfortunately, be accepted as "certain proofs" 7 of the extent or 

1 Proclamation of 14 July, 1526, Harl. MS. 442, f. 64. 

2 Preamble to 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13 (1534). 

3 Bishop Scory in Strype, Eccl. Mem., edition of 1822, Vol. II, Pt. II, p. 482. 
And Proclamation of 1 June, 1548, Soc. of Antiq. Proclaim, Vol. Ill, No. 24. 

4 James Pilkington, Exposition on Nehemiah, in Works, published by Parker 
Society, p. 462. 

5 43 Eliz. cc. 1, 2. 

6 Robert Powell, Depopulation Arraigned, 1636, p. 37. 

7 Uber die Ausdehnung dieser Umwandlung liefern die Werke von Latimer, 
Starkey, Stafford, Harrison, u. a. untriigliche Beweise (E. C. K. Gonner, in 
" Handw. d. Staatsw.," 2d ed., Vol. II, p. 391)- Cunningham thinks that "the 
remarks of such writers as Sir Thomas More, the chancellor of the Realm, 
and Thomas Starkey, a Royal Chaplain, are conclusive as to the wide range 
over which the change was progressing." — "Growth of English Industry," 
3d ed., 1896, Vol. I, p. 526. 



174 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

real social effects of the change. Their vision was too restricted, 
too prejudiced, too jaundiced. And moderns who, misled by them, 
could assert that by 1607 " in the greater part of England the 
inevitable change (from arable to pasture) had been already accom- 
plished," 1 must not only be unmindful of the social pessimism and 
the habit of loose statement common at the time, but must close 
their eyes to such facts as the comparatively steady range of grain 
prices during the century and the existence much later of great 
areas of still uninclosed open field. The dispeopling of the 
countryside by covetous inclosers was one of the great bugbears 
of the period ; but, apart from the indirect evidence of grain 
prices and eighteenth-century agricultural surveys, an examination 
of the contemporary inquisitions of depopulation tends to divest 
this specter of its terrifying proportions. 

If we are to sum up the broader conclusions of such an exam- 
ination, this shrinkage which it necessitates in the estimate of 
magnitude of the inclosure movement would be the first thing to 
be noted. An agricultural change affecting 2.76 per cent, or even 
5 per cent, of the total land area of twenty-four counties in a 
century and a half is surely nothing very alarming. The gradual 
displacing of the agricultural population from their customary 
employment at the rate of 7000, or even 10,000, every thirty 
years, would doubtless cause a certain distress in a body politic 
of England's dimensions in the sixteenth century. With the 
ignorance and hidebound conservatism of the English peasant, 
such a change would be more bitterly resented, the ill effects of 
such an uprooting more pronounced, than a similar social adjust- 
ment in the much more fluid industrial population of to-day. Yet 
the friction from inclosures, though thus relatively great, seems, 
nevertheless, in reality to have been confined to a comparatively 
small section of the people, and the shifting of population to have 
gone on gradually through successive generations. It might be 
urged that, in so far as it was effective, this mobilizing of the 
population, though its beginnings at the time would be felt as a 
social evil, was actually a national blessing in disguise, — a nec- 
essary first step towards England's later industrial supremacy. 

1 S. R. Gardiner, History of England, edition of 1893, Vol. I, pp. 354, 355. 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 175 

And it might be argued that the social effects of the exchange in 
some districts of grain for grass were to a certain extent offset by 
the quiet growth during the century of that movement towards 
the reclamation for arable of waste land, which became more 
marked in the two following centuries. But it is not difficult to 
realize how this tradition-defying change would lend itself to 
exaggeration in the imagination of the time. The eviction of 
husbandmen with their families, 

The forlorne father hanging downe his head, 
His outcast company drawne up and downe, 1 

the sight of the deserted homes and ruined churches, 2 perhaps as 
much as anything the tales of misery, losing nothing in repetition, 
which were spread abroad by the beggars swarming over the 
country and representing themselves, as they doubtless sometimes 
were, as the victims of landlord oppression, 3 — all this would be 
magnified into a menacing social evil, a national calamity respon- 
sible for dearth and distress, and calling for drastic legislative 
remedy. But, freed from contemporary hysterics, the specific 
inclosure movement of the period reveals itself as one of com- 
paratively small beginnings, gradually gaining force through the 
sixteenth century and continuing with probably little check 
throughout the seventeenth century, until it was absorbed in the 
wider inclosure activity of the eighteenth century. If the general 
breaking up of the old three-field husbandry by this inclosure is to 
be called an ''agrarian revolution," it was one which spread over 
three centuries of slow development, and found its real climax 

1 Thomas Bastard, Chrestoleros, 1598, lib. iii, epig. 22, ed. Grosart, 1880. 

2 Joseph Hall, Virgedemiarum, ed. 1825, lib. v, sat. i. 

Would it not vexe thee where thy syres did keepe, 
To see the dunged foldes of dag-tayled sheepe, 
And ruined house where holy things were said. 

3 " Question many of our Beggers, that goe from dore to dore, with wife and 
children after them, where they dwell, and why they go begging. Alas master 
(say they) we were forced out of such a town when it was inclosed, and since 
we have continued a generation of Beggers " (John Moore, " The Crying Sin of 
England," 1653, p. 8). An answer to Moore pertinently suggests: "Whether 
all they tell him in that kind to be true, or no, hee maye doe well to enquire, 
and not take it upon trust." — "Considerations concerning Common Fields," 
1654, p. 17. 



176 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

only after 1 760. And the conversion of arable to pasture with the 
accompanying displacement of population — if in this lay the 
essence of the "revolution" — was for England, as a whole, in 
the sixteenth century scarcely comparable with the analogous 
change of the last thirty years. The statement that the sixteenth- 
century inclosure movement swept devastatingly over the English 
peasantry like the Black Death can only be termed a gross 
exaggeration. 1 

In the second place the statistical results from the inquisitions 
of depopulation, illustrated by the map, indicate that anything like 
activity in inclosing was limited to the Midland counties. This 
inference from our figures is confirmed by a study, in so far as the 
summary Record Office catalogues will permit, of the inclosure 
cases which during the first half of the sixteenth century were 
brought before the so-called Poor Men's Courts — the Courts of 
Star Chamber and of Requests. It is borne out by the long list of 
prosecutions under Elizabeth's first Tillage Act (5 Eliz. c. 2), which 
are entered on the Exchequer Memoranda Rolls of the King's 
Remembrancer. From this latter source I have noted cases of 
inclosure during the period from 1558 to 1603, and of the 221 
places here mentioned, the Midland counties alone furnish 51 
per cent. The acreages in these suits do not seem trustworthy, 
given as they usually are by the informers in round and probably 
exaggerated figures ; but here, again, of the total acreage the 
Midlands furnish 73 per cent. Within this central area it is, as 
in the previous results, the group b made up of the counties 
Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and, above all, Northamptonshire, 
which was preeminently the field of the incloser's enterprise. 2 

The contemporary literature in its vague denunciation too 
rarely condescends to facts and places ; but here also as far 
as it can be localized it refers to the Midlands. Rous and the 
Vicar of Quinton, at the close of the fifteenth century, brought 
from southern Warwickshire and the neighboring northeastern 
part of Gloucestershire the first clear and unmistakable reports as 
to the character of the change. 3 Armstrong specified " the Mydell 
parts of the body of the realme " 4 ; the tract Certayne Causes, the 
counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire. 5 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 177 

The Tillage Act of 1555 recognized that certain parts of England 
were not affected in such a manner as to require legislative inter- 
ference. Elizabeth's Act of 1597, with more precision, named 
these comparatively untouched counties as lying in the north- 
west, east, and south. John Hales, about 1549, laid the scene of 
his dialogue at Coventry, in the center of England ; 6 and a cen- 
tury later Halhead wrote against the same depopulating inclosures 
for sheep-farming from the same county of Warwickshire. 7 Practi- 
cally all the contemporary indications — and the list of references 
could easily be extended — point in the same direction, to the 
Midland district. 

1 A. Hasbach, Die englischen Landarbeiter und die Einhegungen, 1894, p. 20. 

2 Inclosure cases under Act 5 Eliz. c. 2 (Exch. Mem., King's Remembrancer) : 







1558-1603 




Number of Places 


Percentage of Total Acreage 


I. 

II. 

III. 


Northern counties 

Western counties 

Midland counties 


2 5 
15 

18 

60* 

31 

3 

"3 
48 

17 
3 


5.02 
4.61 

2.90 

52.41* 

15.68 

1.70 

72.72 

12.52 

4.08 

1.05 




b 




d 


IV. 
V. 


Total, a-d 

Eastern counties 

Southern counties 

Pembroke, Wales 




Total 


221 











* Northamptonshire, 34 places and 40.25 per cent of the total acreage. 

3 J. Rossi, Historia Regum Angliae, ed. 1745. He names (pp. 122-124) some 
fifty-four places which within a circuit of thirteen miles about Warwick had 
been wholly or partially depopulated before about i486. He seems (p. 116) 
to be aware that the movement is confined " in umbelico regni." The letter 
of the Vicar of Quinton to President Mayhew of Magdalen College is printed 
in abstract in Hist. MSS. Com., 1881, Vol. VIII, Pt I, p. 263, and in full in 
W. Denton's "England in the Fifteenth Century," 1888, pp. 318-320. 

4 Armstrong, Treatise concerning the Staple, ed. Pauli, p. 26. 

5 " Certayne Causes, 1550-1553," in " Four Supplications," E. E. T. S. : E. S. 
Vol. XIII, p. 96. 

6 [John Hales] Discourse of the Common Weal, ed. Elizabeth Lamond, 
1893, p. 15. 

7 Henry Halhead, Inclosure Thrown Open, 1650. 



178 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

To this view that the characteristic inclosures of the fifteenth 
to the seventeenth centuries were largely confined to the Midlands, 
there is the apparent objection that a number of early authorities 
may be cited as mentioning inclosed countries lying outside the 
central region. Professor Ashley on this evidence has marked 
upon his maps, as wholly or mainly inclosed in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, Suffolk, Kent, most of Essex and Hertford- 
shire in the east, and most of Worcestershire with the northwest- 
ern part of Warwickshire in the west of England. But if, when 
the chapter on the Agrarian Revolution was written, he could 
have had the benefit of Professor Meitzen's suggestions, 1 he would 
have hesitated, we may suspect, before classing these old inclosed 
districts among the inclosures of this period. Though the ques- 
tions raised by Meitzen's researches demand in their application 
to England further and careful investigation, it seems clear that a 
distinction must be made between two quite differing forms of set- 
tlement and agricultural practice, one with the " nucleated village " 
and the open fields, the other with its scattered farms and inclosed 
fields. In some sections the '" old inclosures " may go back to an 
original settlement long before the Conquest, in others both set- 
tlement and inclosures may belong to a later period of reclamation 
from the forest and of inner colonization, — a chapter of English 
economic history still to be written. In any case, associated as 
they are with their own distinctive agricultural methods, they are 
not to be confused with the depopulating inclosures of open-field 
land characteristic of the later movement we are here dealing with. 
A contemporary writer excepts from his condemnation of inclo- 
sures V Essex, Hertfordshire, Devonshire, and such like Wood- 
land Countries," where " euerie lordship is charitably diuided 
amongst the Tenants, and tillage also in most of their Closes is 
maintained, and Townes nothing dispeopled." 2 We may name 
from early evidence others of these at any rate in part old-inclosed 
" Woodland Countries." Suffolk, Kent, Sussex, Dorsetshire, 

1 A. Meitzen, Siedelung und Agrarwesen, 1895, Vol. II, p. 118, and Anlage, 
66 a, in the accompanying Atlas. 

2 Francis Trigge, The Humble Petition, 1607, in Dedication. 



INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 179 

Somersetshire, might be mentioned, 1 while large portions of the 
west and north of England seem likewise to have known little or 
nothing of the open fields. Within the Midland open-field district 
itself there seem to have been areas of wooded, thick-hedged 
country with at most but sparse, outlying open-field villages. 
Such, for instance, in Buckinghamshire is the Chiltern region, 
contrasted by Leland with the " champaine " Vale of Aylesbury, 
or, in northwestern Warwickshire, the "Arden," on the right 
hand of the Avon, noted by the same observer. 2 We may in 
passing mention East and West Gloucestershire as illustrating on 
the modern map the contrast between the two distinctive forms of 
settlement. The old-inclosed woodland countries may safely be 
neglected in a consideration of the inclosures of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries. 

A third general conclusion to be drawn from a study of the- 
official inquisitions is that even in the Midland counties, in the 
region where the set of the current towards agrarian innovation 
was at its strongest, it had only succeeded in cutting numerous 
but narrow and scattered channels through the sand-bars of custom 
and prejudice. It would be indeed somewhat surprising, were we 
not already guarded against contemporary asseveration, to discover 
in the midst of such wholesale complaint so comparatively few 
wholesale clearances. Armstrong, in the second quarter of the 
sixteenth century, talks of the destruction of 400 or 500 Midland 
villages within sixty years, but a tenth of his estimate would un- 
doubtedly be nearer the mark. Search through the two official 
inquiries for the Midlands, covering together over sixty years, 

1 See Fitzherbert, Surveying (1523), edition of 1539, chap, xli, for Essex; 
Hales' Discourse (1549), edited by Lamond, p. 49, for " Essex, Kent, Devonshire, 
and such"; Tusser, edition of Dialect Soc, p. 141, for Suffolk and Essex; the 
Considerations of 1607 (printed in Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, 
Vol. II, pp. 702-703), for "Essex, Somerset, Devon, etc."; Blith, The English 
Improver, edition of 1640, p. 40, for Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey, and 
Sussex; while in the edition of 1563 (p. 83) he adds Berkshire, Hampshire, 
Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and mentions among the " Woodlands " the " West- 
erne parts of Warwickshire and the Northerne parts of Worcestershire, Staf- 
fordshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and all the countries thereabouts." 

2 Leland, Itinerary, edited by Hearne, iv ff . 192 a, 166 a; viiif. 74 b. 



i8o 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



reveals but around two dozen villages or hamlets which were prac- 
tically all inclosed and emptied of their inhabitants, the full half of 
them in Northamptonshire. But even here, the incloser's county 
par excellence, a competent local observer remarks, in 1712, that 
"the main body of the county is champaign (open-field), . . . the 
inclosures lie dispersedly up and down in the county. In some 
few places are four or five lordships lying altogether enclosed, . . . 
yet far the greatest part of the county is still open." x The inqui- 
sitions show that, in the main, the inclosures are of small hold- 
ings, ranging on the average for the Midland counties from 30 
to 60 acres ; and, were it not that the statute of 1490 took no 
account of decay associated with less than 20 acres, the average 
entry in the inquisitions would doubtless be lower. Apparently 
a piecemeal inclosure had long been going on, which, so far as 
size is concerned, was not very dissimilar to that which left its 
traces on the fields of Norfolk at the close of the eighteenth 
century. 2 The figures show that in 68.5 per cent of the 1090 
villages reported on in 15 17 the acreage affected was less than 
100 acres, while the Midland inquiry of 1607 gives 48 per cent 
of places with less than 100 acres. 3 

Despite the inadequacies of our statistical basis, its general 
teaching harmonizes with that resulting from a study of the great 
era of inclosures in the eighteenth century, and is not inconsis- 
tent with the little precise information that can be winnowed from 
the chaff of contemporary comment. It may be stated, to resume 
the argument briefly, that the specific inclosure movement of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the depopulating inclosure of 
open fields with a view to the greater profit of grass-farming, had 

1 John Morton, The Natural History of Northamptonshire, 17 12, pp. 13, 15. 

2 Marshall, Rural Economy of Norfolk, 1787, Vol. I, pp. 8, 9. "Wherever a 
person can get four or five acres together [in the open field], he plants a white 
thorn hedge around it" (Kent, Agricultural Survey of Norfolk, 1794, p. 22). 





3 Inquisitions 


Total 

Number of 

Places 


Acreage Affected 


1-99 


100-199 


200-299 


300-399 


400-499 


500-999 


Over 1000 


1517-1519 .... 
1607 


1090 
393 


747 
188 


198 
87 


79 
62 


33 
21 


17 


15 
17 


7 





INCLOSURES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 181 

not by any means the magnitude often ascribed to it ; that it was, 
in other words, little more than the feeble beginning of an V agra- 
rian revolution"; that, limited in amount, it was also circum- 
scribed in area, being largely confined to the central districts of 
England, and even here was of a piecemeal character, so that, 
after more than two and a half centuries, inclosures were only 
lying " dispersedly up and down." 

But this sketch of the specific inclosing movement of the period 
does not touch all the features of the agrarian change. Besides 
the engrossing and- consolidation of farms and the increase in 
rents and copyhold fines, which could and did take place without 
inclosure, there was still another type of inclosure, that of the 
common waste, which should be mentioned. Brinklow associated 
the two forms when he wrote that the v lordes flocks eate vp the 
corne, medows, heathes, and all together," x and that this was not 
all exaggeration is plain from Fitzherbert's more sober statement. 2 
While playing a minor role in the literature and legislation of the 
period, it seems, if number of lawsuits are any criterion, that in- 
closures of common (as distinguished from common fields) caused 
more bickering and strife than the better known and more dra- 
matic attack on the open fields. Of the cases of oppressive in- 
closure complained of to the Privy Council during the sixteenth 
century, almost all relate to the inclosure of common pasture or 
waste ; and the records of the law courts show constant disputes 
over common rights in all parts of the country, bearing witness at 
once to the tendency to landlord encroachment and to the often 
successful force of popular resistance. These contests are, of 
course, not peculiar to the open-field districts, but were found in 
all parts of England ; nor were they especially characteristic of 
this particular period. They form, rather, one phase of the long 
history of the approvement of the wastes which stretches back 
beyond the statute of Merton (1236), and, like the later movement 
for inclosure of the common fields, finds its culmination after 
1760. This gradual and steady nibbling from the common wastes, 
going on for a longer time and over a wider area, was, however, 

1 H. Brinklow, Complaynt (ca. 1542), E.E.T.S.: E. S. Vol. XXII, p. 38. 

2 Fitzherbert, Surveying, edition of 1539, c. 8. 



1 82 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

accompanied for the most part by no such immediate and striking 
changes. Even within the boundaries of the open-field country 
it would tend rather to cramp than to destroy the three-field 
husbandry. But it contributed its share to the social discomfort, 
and increased the force of the reaction against inclosure in general. 
If the extent of these inclosures and their social effects be 
reduced to something like the real proportions, sympathy with 
the inevitable pain of an era of social and economic transition 
need not be thereby diminished. We may still appreciate the suf- 
ferings, mental, as well as physical, of those who, rooted in tradi- 
tion, bound by custom, abhorring innovation, were nevertheless 
pushed onward amidst vociferous complaint by irresistible and to 
them incomprehensible forces. They ascribed their ills' to many 
causes, but below the surface we may discern the silent yet far- 
reaching effects of the general uplifting in western Europe not 
only of new price levels, but of new culture levels. 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE FROM THE 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE NINETEENTH 

By H. L. Gray 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXIV, p. 293, 
February, 1910) 



RECENT discussion about the decline of independent farming 
. in England begins with the appearance of Rae's paper in 
1883. In it he maintains "that up till the close of the eighteenth 
century no really serious breach had as yet been made in the ranks 
of the yeomanry, if indeed their strength had not positively risen.'* 
From 181 5, however, "they have steadily declined, and the suc- 
ceeding sixty years . . . have been sufficient to compass their gen- 
eral, and, except in one or two individual spots, their complete 
disappearance from the face of England." The principal reason 
for this calamity Rae finds in the decline of prices and prosperity 
after the close of the French war. Men who had invested in land 
when the prices of provisions rose in the early years of the war, 
and others who had made improvements in their holdings, or had 
lived somewhat extravagantly during prosperous times, saw them- 
selves unable to meet their mortgages in the subsequent period of 
depression and low prices. The passing of domestic industry and 
the loss of the carrying trade contributed to the same end. Rae's 
propositions have been recently elaborated by H. C. Taylor in a 
careful study of the printed material. 

In opposition to this " myth that the end of last century 
witnessed the heyday of the since vanished yeomanry," J. D. 
Rogers points out the data used by Rae and Taylor refer in part 
to life-lessees and concludes that " farmer-owners . . . have not 
played a great part in our history, and have only been important 

183 



1 84 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

when inextricably intermingled with the great body of tenant 
farmers or voters." Accepting and emphasizing the first part of 
this criticism, Hermann Levy attributes the decline of independ- 
ent farming not to the low price of .grain after 1813 but to its 
high price from 1760 to 181 3. The small farmer, then producing 
live stock for the market rather than grain, derived no advantage 
from the advancing price of the latter, — was, indeed, at times 
forced to buy. Levy's propositions have in turn been subjected to 
severe criticism by Hasbach. His discussion of the independent 
farmer in "Die englischen Landarbeiter " has been greatly extended 
in the revised English translation of that work and still more in 
an article in the Archiv filr Sozialwissenschaft. In the main he 
agrees with Rae, criticising chiefly the latter's interpretation of the 
term " yeoman " and his neglect of enclosures. For Hasbach the 
yeoman class includes large as well as small farmers. He believes 
that yeomen were still numerous at the close of the eighteenth 
century ; Rae makes " a valuable point in ascribing their downfall 
to the period after 18 15." As the more prosperous of them, how- 
ever, passed into the ranks of the gentry from the sixteenth cen- 
tury onwards, the upper layer of the yeomanry vanished. The 
lower layer, differing little from cottagers, suffered like them from 
the enclosures of the eighteenth century. Arnold Toynbee, some- 
what earlier, had concluded that " the process of the disappearance 
(of the small freeholder) has been continuous from about 1700 to 
the present day (but) ... it was not until about 1760 that the 
process of extinction became rapid." Mantoux in his study of the 
Industrial Revolution thinks that the yeomanry was already doomed 
before 1780, when the new industry gave the final blow. "Son 
sort . . . n' a ete qu'un episode remarquable dun drame plus 
vaste. ..." This drama was the enclosure movement which 
reached its height in the second half of the eighteenth century 
when " le nombre des fermes ... a beaucoup diminue." 

To a great extent the entire discussion has hinged upon the 
county reports to the Board of Agriculture made at the close of 
the eighteenth century and upon the contemporary writings of 
William Marshall and Arthur Young. All have much to say about 
the surviving yeomanry. Difficulties arise, however, from the 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 185 

vague numerical statements made and from the loose use of the 
term "yeoman. " The only numerical pronouncement upon which 
all observers could agree was that yeomen had disappeared in 
Norfolk and had fallen off in Lancashire and Cheshire. Else- 
where defmiteness is attained in ascribing to the yeomanry one- 
third of the North Riding of Yorkshire, one-third of Berkshire, 
and one-fifth of the South Holland and one-half of the Fen 
districts of Lincolnshire. Shropshire is estimated to have three 
thousand freeholders and copyholders, or, as an earlier writer put 
it, " an infinite number." Most often, however, the phrase is 
simply " many " or "a considerable number," an expression which 
we have no means of gauging. Still more troublesome is the term 
"yeoman." Originally perhaps limited to forty-shilling free- 
holders, it had come in the eighteenth century to include at times 
copyholders and tenant farmers. Since the distinction between 
tillers of freehold and copyhold land was at this time slight, their 
confusion need not trouble us. For English social and economic 
history, however, it is of considerable importance to separate 
lessees from occupying owners. Precisely because the county 
reports confuse the two under the term " yeoman," they are likely 
to be misleading and to endanger conclusions based upon them. 

In view of this varying connotation of the word "yeoman," of 
the vagueness of the statements made about the persistence of the 
class, and of the somewhat general knowledge upon which such 
statements must have been based, it may not be amiss to try to 
get more accurate information regarding independent farming 
within a limited area. Such a study I have attempted for Oxford- 
shire, and the results are here presented. The term " yeoman " is 
retained but is always used to designate an independent or land- 
owning farmer (occupying owner). The data are based upon three 
groups of documents, hitherto little used, — assessments of the 
Land Tax, enclosure awards, and manorial surveys. 

Very recently Mr. A. H. Johnson has published his Ford 
Lectures for 1909 on the disappearance of the small landowner. 
He, for the first time, has used the Land Tax assessments. Those 
utilized in the present paper are summarized in his last chapter 
and some from other counties are there added. The conclusion 



1 86 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

which he reaches is " that by far the most serious period for the 
small owner was at the close of the seventeenth and during the 
first half of the eighteenth century . . . and that the changes since 
the middle of the eighteenth century have not been nearly so 
radical as they have been generally supposed to be." This view 
is supported by the evidence about to be more specifically set forth. 

The parochial records of the assessment of the Land Tax seem 
to have been carefully made from the time of the levy of ship 
money ; a complete and continuous series exists only from about 
1785. At this time, too, the returns, for Oxfordshire at least, 
incorporate an additional item of unusual value. In nearly all 
cases they begin to state not only the owner of the real property 
assessed but also its occupier. Thereby it becomes possible to 
discover which farmers are tilling their own land and which are 
tenants only. Occupying owners, that is, independent yeoman 
farmers, stand in clear juxtaposition to non-occupying landlords. 
The purpose of this paper is to point out to what extent the 
former existed in Oxfordshire in 1785 ; to trace their fortunes 
from 1785 to 1832; to ascertain whether their numbers had de- 
creased since the sixteenth century ; to note the effect upon them 
of such enclosures as occurred between 1785 and 1832 ; and, 
lastly, to inquire how far enclosures of an earlier period should be 
called a cause of their disappearance. 

In the use of the Land Tax returns, comparisons are the 
easier, since the rate of four shillings the pound remained un- 
changed from 1775 to 1789, and in the latter year Pitt made it 
unchangeable. Certain limitations and sources of possible error, 
however, have to be kept in mind*. In the first place boroughs 
and market towns of any size have to be excluded, the assessment 
there relating largely to houses, shops, and inns. In a few cases 
lessees for long terms of years are substituted for owners. Often 
a careless use of the term or sign " ditto " causes confusion, which 
can be cleared up only by examining the writer's usage and com- 
paring the returns for successive years. Occasionally the distinc- 
tion between owners and occupiers is not noted until some years 
after 1785 ; and again, as certain owners begin to redeem their 
assessment after 1798, the same discrimination is neglected relative 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 187 

to sums redeemed. Accuracy in the exact size of holdings cannot, 
of course, be attained. The returns, concerned only with pounds 
and shillings, show rather the relative value of estates in each 
parish. A comparison with contemporary enclosure awards, how- 
ever, shows the assessment to have been at the rate of from one 
shilling and sixpence to two shillings per acre. Small assessments 
present a considerable difficulty. Later returns show that cottages 
and houses paid from one to five shillings, while some paid more. 
The line between landless cottagers and cottagers having an acre 
or two of land is so vacillating that it must be arbitrarily fixed. In 
the present study only occupying owners who pay six shillings or 
more are considered. Cottagers paying less, who may have had 
an acre or two of land, will be pretty well counterbalanced by the 
unavoidable inclusion of some landless dwellings which pay six 
shillings or more. Another troublesome entry is the home farm 
of the country squire. Often it is so large an item in the parish 
that to treat it as a yeoman's farm would give misleading results. 
Hence another arbitrary line has been drawn at twenty pounds, 
representing about three hundred acres. Any one paying more 
than this, even though an occupying owner, is excluded from the 
group presently to be considered. Similarly excluded is the as- 
sessment of tithes ; the owner and occupier naturally appear as the 
same person. Again, when certain rates due from woodland are 
charged against a so-called " occupying owner," usually a nobleman 
or a gentleman, they are not, when discoverable, admitted among 
the holdings of yeoman farmers. Lastly, estates which for the 
moment are in the hands of the owner in default of a tenant are 
classed as landlords' estates. In short, the term " occupying owner " 
or " yeoman farmer " is here used to designate only those who paid 
in 1785 an annual tax of from six shillings to twenty pounds, 
representing estates of from about one acre to about three hundred 
acres. Consideration is first given to the size and distribution of 
this class, as the most salient feature in the Oxfordshire returns 
of 1785. 

The results of an examination of the assessments in the several 
townships are summarized in the table on page 188. Townships 
are grouped according to the percentage of the total quota paid in 



188 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 





Number of 
Townships 

Unen- 
closed IN 

1755 




00 1-1 vo m 


ON 

VO 




X 
y 

g 

X 

W 

z 

o 
H 

o 

W 
M 
2 

D 


papiAipqns 
tpnm si Ajaadoxj 


O ti- r^ vo 


vo 




USUI aajqj 0} OAY} 

Aq pauAio si Ajaadoad 
IB9J aqj jo jpq-auo 


00 rn 00 vo 

ro -h i-h 


10 




usui aaaq} 0; oa\j Aq 
pauA\o si Aiaadaid pai 
aqi jo sqi-inoj-aaaqj. 


O vo On On vo 


O 




ueui auo Aq 
pauA\o si Ajaadoid ^aa 
aqj jo sqjjnoj-aaiqj. 


O 1- 1 n r-~ Tf 

' w vO 


CO 




Number of 

Occupying 

Owners 


w ro cr> *o 

C\ (^ N N 
lO (O h'| H 


M 




Paid by Occupying 
Owners 



Ph 


tj- vq 00 ^t 

rs rovd oi 

N 1-1 


10 
O 

On 




c 

3 
O 

£ 

< 


„ r^ lo vo 00 

>-n vo 00 ro O 

u n 00 vO 00 


VO 

ro 

VO 
CO 




Total 
Quotas of 
the Town- 
ships 


uj r^. t-^ w w O 

V> O O ro CO CO 

^ MD O ro On co 

>-0 "i on r~~ 00 


vq. 




O a, 
K X 

|| 


00 ^ vo 00 O 
t}- "1 ro vo ON 


vO 

ON 
M 








z 

t 

u 
u 

O c» 

< £ 
a. 2 

M 

HO 
ni 
a 

H 

O 




Group A, more than 20 per cent . 
Group B, from 10 to 20 per cent. 
Group C, from 5 to 10 per cent . 
Group D, less than 5 per cent . . 
Group E, nothing (no occupying 
owners) 


CI 

C 

E- 







YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 189 

each by occupying owners, and the groups for convenience 
are designated A, B, C, D, E. 

From this summary it appears that only 9 per cent of the 
county's rural real estate was in the hands of the independent 
farmer in 1785. But it also appears that the five groups fall into 
two well-marked divisions. In groups C, D, and E, comprising 
about two-thirds of the townships, there are only three hundred 
and forty-three occupying owners, or less than two per township. 
They pay but 2.3 per cent of the tax and presumably own only 
this percentage of the land. The remaining 97.7 per cent is to be 
attributed to the non-occupying owner — to the landlord. In the 
other division, formed of groups A and B and comprising one 
hundred and two townships, the occupying owner pays 20 per cent 
of the tax and is to this extent a substantial factor in the commu- 
nity. We should not be far wrong in picturing two-thirds of rural 
Oxfordshire in 1785 as given over almost entirely to the landlord, 
while the other third has one-fifth of its population yeoman farmers. 

It will be remembered that Oxfordshire rises in the north- 
west into the Cotswold Hills and in the southeast into the Chil- 
terns. The intervening surface comprises the low-lying valleys 
of the Thames, the Cherwell, and the Thame. A cross-section of 
the county from northwest to southeast would thus have the 
appearance of the profile of a saddle, with Oxford at the center. 
In the Chiltern region there are fewest yeomen townships. These 
parishes were brought under cultivation largely from the forest 
state, as becomes clear from the position and extent of their open 
fields. The more fertile and more favorably situated parts of the 
river valleys also are in landlord hands. In three spots only 
are independent farmers numerous, and these three are the most 
retired in the county. One is the triangle formed with the northern 
line of the Chilterns as its base and the two highways from Oxford 
to London as its sides. It is a lonely plain, in' places not very 
fertile, still untraversed by a railway and in marked contrast with 
the attractive southern slopes of the same hills. The open fields 
of this region were among the last in the county to be enclosed. 
A second isolated spot is that about Otmoor, some distance 
removed from the Oxford-Bicester highway. But the largest of 



190 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



the three districts is the northern end of the county, rising from 
Banbury westward to the spurs of the Cotswolds. It is the divide 
between the valleys of the Thames, the Severn, and the Ouse 
— the very heart of England. Before the days of canals and rail- 
ways its communication with the outer world must have been 
slow if not difficult. Yet the soil is the best in the county, a 
much-praised red loam. Before the Civil War the region was a 
Puritan stronghold, while today certain parishes are peopled 
largely by Quakers. Perhaps these characteristics have made for 
the vigor of yeoman farming. 

To this survey of the status of the independent farmer in 1785 
a glance at his fate for the next two generations is the natural 
sequence. It is the period of the Napoleonic wars and their 
aftermath. Though the year 1832 is a political rather than an 
economic landmark, it is here chosen, since at that date the 
reaction from the war period had had time to make itself felt. 
Returns for 1804 show the state of affairs during the crisis. The 
number of occupying owners and their assessment at each of 
the three dates is indicated in the following table : 



Land Tax 

paid by- 
occupying 
owners 



Number of 

occupying 

owners 



Land Tax 
paid by 

occupying 
owners 



Number of 
occupying 



1832 



Land Tax 
paid by 

occupying 
owners 



Number of 
occupying 



Group A 
Group B 
Group C 
Group D 
Group E 



£ s. 
1525 7 
88615 
2686 
1838 



59i 

393 
!73 
175 



£ s. 

1752 11 

1 148 15 

318 16 

298 14 

60 16 



646 

499 
188 

185 
20 



£ s. 

1672 7 

11764 

3812 

4274 

95 3 



553 
387 
156 
146 
20 



Total 



2863 16 



1322 



3579 I2 



153* 



375 2 ° 



1262 



While in 1785 occupying owners paid 9.05 per cent of the total 
assessment of the county, their contribution in 1804 had become 
1 1.3 per cent and in 1832, 11.9 per cent. A very marked 
increase appears in the amount of land cultivated by owners dur- 
ing the early years of the French wars ; and this is true for each 
group of townships. The total amount even continued to increase 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 191 

until 1832, though too much should not be made of this. The 
increase between 1804 and 1832 is largely in group decrease. It 
is perhaps safest to think of the amount as remaining nearly 
stationary during these years. 

The situation is somewhat different when we turn from the 
amount of land held by occupying owners to the number of the 
latter. From 1785 to 1804 the tendency is as before. The total 
increases from 1322 at the former date to 1538 at the latter, each 
group showing an advance. From 1804 to 1832, however, the 
total drops to 1262, a figure even smaller than that for 1785. 
Hence the general conclusion for the county must be that during 
the first nineteen years of our period there was a marked increase 
both in the number of occupying owners and in their holdings, 
but that during the last twenty-eight years the occupying owners 
decreased in number though the area tilled by them did not. 

The interpretation of these facts is, of course, that there was a 
return to the soil attendant upon the higher price of food products 
during the French wars. Men bought land and tilled it. In the 
period of comparative agricultural depression which followed, this 
land was sold again, but not to the landlord. It came into the 
hands of the more stable of the independent farmers, who thus 
increased their holdings. The period made for the prosperity of 
this class, if not for its numerical increase. It was not a time of 
the growth of large estates at the expense of the occupying owner. 
The latter, once getting control of the land, did not relinquish it, 
unless to a fellow occupier. 

Large estates did develop in several places, but almost always 
through acquisitions made from other non-occupying owners. The 
list subjoined indicates those townships in the county in which the 
largest estate shows increased assessment between 1785 and 1832. 
In all other townships the largest estate remained unchanged or 
declined in value. Though these large estates increased their tax 
to the extent of ,£290, not more than ^40 of this could have 
come from occupied estates purchased from yeomen. 

For an accurate conception as to whether the tenacity of the 
yeoman has continued from 1832 to the present, an examination 
of the Land Tax returns at intervals during the period would be 



192 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

essential. This I have not been able to make. If a parliamentary 
report of 1896 may be trusted, the amount of land then in farms 
of from 1 to 300 acres, tilled by their owners, was only 8.37 per 
cent of the county's area. If, however, farms of 300 to 500 acres 
be included, the per cent rises to 12.9 — almost exactly what it was 
in 1832. At best, occupying owners seem not to have extended 
their holdings during three-fourths of the nineteenth century, and 
may have decreased them during that period. 

Turning now to the period before 1785, we face a problem of 
tendencies. The evidence is by no means so complete as one 
could wish, yet something we have. In the second half of the 
sixteenth century and during the opening years of the seventeenth 
it became the fashion to make surveys or field books of manors 
and parishes. In their most complete form these surveys locate 
all open-field strips and all enclosures within the parish, indicating 
the tenure by which each is held and its tenant, not neglecting a 
description of the demesne and sometimes including the customs 
of the manor. Though often abridged, summarized, or incomplete, 
they are of great value for an intimate acquaintance with sixteenth- 
century agrarian conditions. For our immediate purpose they fur- 
nish the number and holdings of freeholders and copyholders in 
twenty-six Oxfordshire townships. 

In about half of these cases the areas are in acres, in the other 
half in virgates, the virgate varying in Oxfordshire from 20 to 48 
acres. The chief difficulty in the comparison with eighteenth- 
century data is that the sixteenth-century surveys do not dis- 
criminate between occupying and non-occupying owners. The 
implication seems to be that at least nearly all copyholders are 
occupiers. In the table on page 193 only such freeholders and 
copyholders are included as have messuages and are not distin- 
guished by the term " gentleman." All holdings of less than two 
acres are excluded, as was necessarily done in the returns of 1785. 
A few non-resident owners may have crept into this computation, 
but the number cannot be large enough to vitiate seriously the 
following comparison with the later data. 

Both the number of yeoman farmers in the parishes in question 
and the area of their holdings seem to have decreased by about 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 



193 






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YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 195 

one-half between the end of the sixteenth century and the late 
eighteenth. Of the twenty-six parishes it happens that nine are 
among those which in 1785 had more than 20 per cent of their 
areas in the hands of occupying owners. Even so, five of 
these show a distinct falling off in the number of freeholders and 
copyholders, together with a decrease of about one-third in the 
area of freeholds and copyholds. The other four seem not to 
have changed greatly. The remaining eighteen townships, two- 
thirds of the total number, have lost more than one-half of their 
freeholds and copyholds, some being left with none at all. This 
proportion is not unlike what we have been led to expect from 
the conditions of 1785. At that time in one-third of the town- 
ships of the county the yeomanry constituted about 20 per cent 
of the population ; in the other two-thirds only a little more than 
2 per cent. We seem now to have reason for adding that in the 
latter group it had shrunk to 2 per cent. Putting the matter in 
its most favorable light and allowing that one-third of the county 
lost few or none of its independent farmers during the two cen- 
turies, we must yet conclude that the remainder lost heavily. 

Corroborative evidence is given by nine Gloucestershire town- 
ships for which we have data similar to those just adduced. In 
them the average falling off of copyholders and copyhold acreage 
was upwards of two-thirds, somewhat greater than that east of 
the Cotswolds. Something, however, may be due to the uniformly 
early date of the surveys. 

To explain the decline in yeoman farming which thus seems 
actually to have taken place, enclosure has received its share of 
attention. Enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 
have been recently discussed by Hasbach, Mantoux, Slater, and 
Johnson. All cite and discuss contemporary reports and pam- 
phlets, particularly the county reports to the board of agriculture 
and the writings of William Marshall and Arthur Young. Has- 
bach thinks that enclosures were fatal for the smaller farmer 
(" lesser yeoman ") and the cottager. Mantoux, generalizing from 
a few instances, states that " presque partout, la cloture des open 
fields et la division des communaux ont eu pour suite la vente d'un 
grand nombre de proprietes. Slater has chapters on enclosure 



196 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



as affecting the poor and as resulting in depopulation, but in 
the latter does not clearly discriminate between owning occupiers 
and other classes of the rural population. Yet his introduction 
characterizes the enclosure policy of the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries as one directed toward " the uprooting of peasant pro- 
prietors." Johnson cautiously concludes that "directly and indi- 
rectly enclosures tended to divorce the poor man from the soil," 
yet the larger yeoman was benefited, and, in general, "enclosure 
should be looked upon as a necessary preliminary rather than the 
true cause of consolidation." Rae and Taylor, discovering no 
marked decline in yeoman farming until after 1 8 1 5 , attribute the 
nineteenth-century decadence to causes other than enclosure. 

In view of these diverse opinions it may be advisable to recon- 
sider our Oxfordshire parishes in the light of their enclosure his- 
tory. And the preceding order of inquiry may be retained. What 
was the effect of enclosure between 1785 and 1832, the years for 
which our data are most complete ? And what may be inferred to 
have been its effect before 1785 ? 

Between 1785 and 1832 forty-nine townships of the county were 
enclosed, with results which may be seen in the following schedule : 





Number of 
Parishes En- 
closed 


1785 


1804 


1832 




Land Tax 
paid by 

occupying 
owners 


Number 
of occupy- 
ing owners 


Land Tax 
paid by 

occupying 
owners 


Number 
of occupy- 
ing owners 


Land Tax 
paid by 

occupying 
owners 


Number 
of occupy- 
ing owners 


Group A . . 
Group B . . . 
Group C . . . 
Group D . . 
Group E . . . 


9 
14 

7 
i5 

4 


£ s. 
336 9 
240 

5 2 15 

28 6 




J 5 2 
121 

3i 

30 



£ s. 
349 14 
320 13 

66 

47 1 
10 16 


164 

154 

30 

34 

3 


£ s. 
425 16 
326 13 
45 i5 
47 16 
12 12 


155 

*5 2 

21 

31 

4 


Total . . 


49 


657 10 


333 


794 4 


385 


85912 


363 





Taken together, these townships seem to have had the same 
experience as the county at large. The amount of land occupied 
by the owners increases steadily during the entire period. The 
number of occupying owners increases until 1804, but declines 
somewhat before 1832. Turning from the totals to the figures for 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 197 

individual parishes, we find an occasional deviation from the rule 
just stated, but seldom one of moment. Distinct loss of occupying 
owners or of their estates can be discerned in seven townships 
only. In these, eight independent farmers and occupied farms 
rated at £>2J 4s. disappear. Elsewhere, if occupying owners 
seem to be lost, they have either disposed of their properties at 
a date distant from that of enclosure or have leased them and 
thenceforth appear as landlords. The disappearance of eight men 
and of some three hundred acres in the forty-nine townships 
which underwent enclosure during the half century in question is 
of slight consequence in comparison with the marked increase of 
yeoman farming apparent in the townships taken together. 

Before 1785 enclosure had been actively going on during thirty 
years, but unfortunately our data for determining its effects are by 
no means so complete or precise as the material just summarized. 
The only Oxfordshire Land Tax assessments before 1785 are 
those of a few parishes for the years 1760 and 1761. Nor do 
these distinguish between occupying and non-occupying owners, 
as do the later ones. Hence the sole information to be had from 
comparison of a Land Tax receipt of 1760 and one of 1785 is 
whether there had been in the interval an engrossing of farms, 
i.e. the absorption of small estates by large ones. Such informa- 
tion may be extended by an examination of enclosure awards, 
which likewise do not go the length of discriminating between 
occupying and non-occupying owners. At best we can merely 
argue that engrossing may have entailed the loss of some inde- 
pendent farmers, while its absence probably means the mainte- 
nance of the status quo. 

Of the fifty-six Oxfordshire parishes enclosed from 1758 to 
1785, the 1760 assessments remain for seven. One of these, 
Stanton Harcourt, shows no particular engrossing during the 
period. But the other seven do. Especially in Bladon, Chester- 
ton, and Handborough the Duke of Marlborough is found to 
have been vigorously making purchases, and in Chesterton his 
interest is new. In the other three townships the purchasing 
landlords are different persons, and the one at Heath has not 
bought extensively. 



1 98 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The meager information from the Land Tax records is some- 
what extended by the evidence of the enclosure awards. These 
are available for forty-seven of the fifty-six parishes. In some of 
these, allotments made in lieu of newly purchased estates mention 
the recent purchases. In this way we discover preenclosure pur- 
chases in five parishes. In not more than two of them, however, 
is there any tendency toward forming large estates ; and one of 
these two estates is acquired by the Duke of Marlborough at 
Black Bourton. Again, by comparing enclosure awards with the 
Land Tax assessments of 1785 we discover traces of post-enclosure 
consolidation in three other parishes. 

Taken together there are fourteen parishes out of the fifty-six 
enclosed between 1758 and 1785 which show traces of engross- 
ing of estates either before or after enclosure. But of these cases 
four are not significant, two others not markedly so, while half 
of the remainder are directly connected with the Duke of Marl- 
borough. On the other hand, in the awards of thirty-three par- 
ishes there is no mention of estates purchased nor is there any 
evidence of engrossing between the date of enclosure and 1785. 
What is especially noticeable is that in groups A and B the seven- 
teen parishes which underwent enclosure retained a large yeoman 
population and show no growth of large estates. We may well 
surmise that their experience was very like that of parishes en- 
closed after 1785. Fifteen of the seventeen lie in the northern 
region about Banbury, the stronghold of the small farmer. In 
view of all this, our general conclusion regarding enclosure be- 
tween 1755 and 1785 must be that in the majority of cases, and 
especially in the north of the county, it was accompanied by no 
growth of large estates, no consolidation after enclosure, probably 
not much before it, and little or no disappearance of the independ- 
ent farmer ; but we must add that in certain parishes, especially 
those in the southwest of the county where the Duke of Marl- 
borough had interests, some estates were bought up, a part of 
which may have come from independent farmers. 

A final and difficult question is the connection between enclosure 
prior to 1760 and the disappearance of the independent farmer. 
It may be assumed that enclosure had been taking place for two 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 199 

and a half centuries. Professor Gay's researches have done much 
to establish the fact and to determine the continuity and the 
extent of the movement. Miss Leonard's paper adds some data 
for the seventeenth century. The year 1760, or at least 1755, 
marks the period at which a new method of enclosure becomes 
popular. From 1755 resort to private acts of parliament, occa- 
sional hitherto, supplies us, as has become evident, with a full 
series of acts and awards. Previously enclosure had gone on, as 
a rule, by private agreement or chancery decree or had been a 
piecemeal process unauthorized by legal formality. For the 
moment we are interested in the one hundred and twenty-seven 
Oxfordshire townships which had become enclosed in one quiet 
way or another before 1755. . . . 

Obviously we have not data sufficient to show decisively whether 
enclosure before 1755 caused the disappearance of the yeoman. 
In most cases we do not know when or under what circumstances 
the parishes were enclosed or when the small holders dropped 
out. We have only the situation in 1785. Still conjectures can 
be wrung even from this. If enclosure was the fundamental 
cause of the disappearance of the yeoman, the parishes in which 
yeomen are fewest in 1785 should be enclosed and those in 
which they are most numerous should be open. From this point 
of view, examine the schedule. Group A exactly fulfils the logi- 
cal demand. Its parishes have upwards of 20 per cent of yeomen 
and are all in open field. Group B, however, with 10-20 per cent 
of yeomen, has managed to get thirteen of its fifty-four parishes 
enclosed. At the other end of the scale groups D and E, with 
practically no yeomen, have fifty-four of their hundred and fifty- 
eight parishes open. It begins to appear that the presence of 
yeomen does not delay enclosure nor their absence guarantee it. 

Some other factor has to be considered, and the engrossing of 
estates suggests itself. A reexamination of the groups shows 
enclosure in far closer relation with this than with the disappearing 
yeoman. Of the enclosed parishes in Group B, four were probably 
never in open field, seven have three-fourths of their respective 
areas in the hands of two or three men, and two have one-half of 
their areas similarly engrossed. In Group C, too, seven of the ten 



200 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

enclosed parishes show respectively more than one-half of their 
areas held by three owners. 

Just as in these two groups engrossing in certain parishes has 
been conducive to enclosure, so in Group D the lack of it has 
caused delay. The continued existence of open fields in thirty- 
five townships of this group can scarcely be attributed to the 
independent farmer, since he owned on the average only 2J- per 
cent of the soil. The failure to enclose is to be charged rather 
to a multiplicity of landlords. For in the land tax reports, the 
twenty-seven townships which were enclosed after 1785 have, 
except in two or three instances, many non-occupying owners. 
The evidence of the three groups thus seems to show that en- 
grossing rather than the absence of occupying owners was the 
normal preliminary to enclosure before 1755. 

Group E indicates whether enclosure always followed speedily 
upon engrossing. Here there are no small farmers and engrossing 
had gone far. In each of the ninety townships from one to three 
men own three-fourths of the land, yet nineteen are unenclosed 
in 1755 and twelve in 1785. Enclosure of five of the twelve is 
delayed even to the middle of the nineteenth century. Nor is this 
because in them there are many landlords. In no parish are there 
more than five or six of any importance, aside from the glebe and 
tithe interest. Instances like these have at least two counterparts 
in Group D. Taken together they make clear that enclosure 
was sometimes delayed, not so much because there were many 
interests to harmonize as because landlords were indifferent. 
With their holdings probably not badly scattered, owners were 
not troubled by inconveniences to their tenants (which perhaps 
the latter did not feel) and did not care to incur the expense of 
parliamentary act and award. Such a situation exists today in the 
parish of Westcote, Gloucestershire, just on the western border 
of Oxfordshire. 

If the foregoing interpretation of later evidence be correct for 
the period before 1755, there seems ground for believing that 
the existence of small independent farmers did not always hinder 
enclosure and that their disappearance did not always facilitate it. 
Engrossing of small properties was the essential antecedent. If 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 201 

such chanced to be yeoman farms, engrossing involved the disap- 
pearance of the yeomen. But one must inquire what motives led to 
the engrossing of independent farms rather than construe as a cause 
of their disappearance what was often actually a result — sometimes 
long delayed. This paper does not attempt to explain why yeoman 
holdings vanished before 1755, but simply points out that the 
invoking of enclosures explains little. The actual order of events 
appears to be that for certain reasons and by certain means land- 
lords first acquired estates, and then in the course of time got 
these accumulated properties enclosed. 

Engrossing was not the only process antecedent to enclosure 
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Parallel with it, 
usually seen in the townships where ownership was getting to be 
the attribute of a few, but often appearing elsewhere, was the 
breakdown of the old field systems. These began to give way to 
complicated systems which allowed almost as elaborate a rotation 
of crops as was possible on enclosed lands. Great Tew in north- 
western Oxfordshire made changes in 1759, devised a new 
rotation in 1761, and taking the next natural step before the 
rotation had once run its course, undertook enclosure in 1767. 
The remarkable diversity of field systems in use in Oxfordshire 
in the late eighteenth century marks a transition stage when an 
eagerness to use land to the best advantage had not yet achieved 
enclosure. The numerous enclosures of the Banbury region 
between 1760 and 1785, unattended for the most part by en- 
grossing or the disappearance of the independent farmer, are to 
be attributed to the influence of these progressive ideas. 

Enclosure thus becomes a sign either that the estates of a 
township have been largely engrossed or that there is impatience 
with the trammels of the old field systems. Both conditions of 
course may coexist and hasten the end. Both go back to deeper 
causes, the working of which caused the independent farmer 
partly to disappear. Sometimes, to be sure, he disappeared 
because he stood in the way of the last stage of the process. In a 
township owned by relatively few men or anxious to get rid of 
the open-field system, an obstinate yeoman or two may have 
objected to enclosure and may have been bought out or bullied 



202 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

out. This is perhaps the closest approach which seventeenth- and 
eighteenth-century enclosure makes to becoming a cause of the 
disappearance of the occupying owner. Such cases existed, without 
doubt. We have found them between 1755 and 1832, but in 
small numbers, and then due largely to the activity of the Duke 
of Marlborough between 1760 and 1785. Most of the evidence, 
on the other hand, seems to indicate that enclosure was the 
registering of a fait accompli and was dependent upon the en- 
grossing of estates and the breakdown of old field systems. 

To determine what underlay these last two phenomena and 
what was their relation to the disappearance of the yeoman farmer, 
there is need of further investigation. Toynbee and Johnson 
have given suggestions. Permanent conclusions must probably 
rest on the rentals, the surveys, the rolls of manorial and central 
courts during the period in question. The present paper has 
merely attempted to show for one county what the facts are. 
For this limited area they seem scarcely to be what most current 
writing has maintained. There was in Oxfordshire no decline in 
the area of yeoman farms between 18 14 and 1832, as Rae and 
Taylor would lead us to think, and scarcely any falling off in the 
number of yeoman farmers from 1785 to 1832. The temporary 
increase in the ranks of the latter during the period of the French 
war does not well accord with Levy's contention that misfortune 
came to them with the advancing price of grain. Enclosure after 
1785 did not fatally affect yeomen with holdings of from two 
acres to three hundred acres, and did not to any great extent 
during the preceding thirty years. In this respect, the views of 
Miss Leonard, Hasbach, Mantoux, and Slater do not receive con- 
firmation. Toynbee, in saying that the disappearance of small 
freeholders has been continuous was better advised than when he 
added, '■ it Was not until about 1760 that the process of extinction 
became rapid." Mr. Johnson, alone, reasoning from the Land 
Tax returns and other data, reaches conclusions about the period 
when the yeomanry disappeared more in accord with those which 
seem to hold for Oxfordshire. Summarily stated, these are that 
the marked decline in yeoman farming took place between the 



YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 203 

sixteenth century and 1 760 rather than after that period ; that 
enclosure of the open fields after 1760 was not disastrous to 
occupying owners who had more than one acre of land ; and that 
earlier enclosure should probably, in the main, be looked upon not 
as a cause but as a result of the disappearance of small farms. 



THE DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS IN 
ENGLAND 

By Henry Charles Taylor, Ph.D. 

(From the Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, June, 1904) 

[This selection begins with Chapter IV of this important study by Professor 
Henry C. Taylor. The preceding chapters had described the conditions of land 
tenure in England at the close of the seventeenth century and the changes, 
amounting almost to a revolution, which came about in the eighteenth century, 
especially the gradual displacement of the yeomen by the gentlemen farmers. 
— Ed.] 

THE AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION FROM 1820 TO 1836, AND 
ITS INFLUENCE UPON LANDOWNERSHIP 

THE first twelve years of the nineteenth century were extremely 
prosperous times for English agriculture, and until 1820 prices 
had not been reduced very materially; 1 but from 1820 to 1836 
prices were comparatively low. This era of low prices, following 
,the great prosperity of war times, wrought disaster among all 
classes in England who were dependent upon agriculture for an 
income. Tooke attributes the high prices of the one period and 
the low prices of the other to the war, the currency, and the varia- 
tions of the seasons, along with a rapidly growing population 
engaged in manufactures and commerce. The war made the 
importation of food dangerous and expensive ; and a somewhat 
debased currency, and bad seasons at the close of the century, 
with an increasing demand for food, resulted in enormously high 
prices. On the other hand, peace, a restored currency and a 
series of excellent crops after 18 19 resulted in a great reduction 
in prices. 

The purpose of this chapter is to determine the influence of this 
agricultural depression upon the landowning farmers of England. 

204 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 



205 



We are fortunate in having the minutes of the evidence given 
before the Select Committee on Agriculture, during this period, 



1 Tooke, History of Prices, Vol. I, p. 5. Also, The Report of the Select 
Committee on Agriculture, for the year 1833, p. xii, from which the following 
table is taken : 

THE PRICE OF WHEAT, PER QUARTER, FROM 1797 TO 1833 



Annual Average of the 
Kingdom 



5-Year 
Averages 



Highest and Lowest Prices in the 5 Years 



Date of highest price Date of lowest price 



1797 
1798 
1799 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1803 
1804 
1805 
1806 
1807 
1808 
1809 
1810 
1811 
1812 
1813 
1814 
1815 
1816 
1817 
1818 
1819 
1820 
1821 
1822 
1823 
1824 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 
1831 
1832 
1833 



5* * 
50 4 

66 n 
110 5 
115 11 

67 9 
57 1 
60 5 
87 1 
76 9 

73 1 
78 11 

94 5 
103 3 



92 5 

122 8 

106 6 

72 1 

63 § 

76 2 

94 

53 8 
72 3 

65 10 

54 5 
43 3 
5i 9 
62 

66 6 
56 11 
56 9 
60 5 



s. d. 



79 



699 



74 



561 



61 8 



21, March, 180] 
154s. id. 



[7, August, 1805 
97 s. 8d. 



9, June, 1810 
114s. iod. 



8, August, 1812 
150s. 3d. 



28, June, 1817 
112s. 7d. 



25, June, 1825 
69 s. 5d. 



14, November, 1828 
76 s. 7d. 



25, March, 1797 
47 s. 1 id. 



3, March, 
49s. 



14, November, 1807 
65s. yd. 



:3, January, 1816 
53s. id. 



29, December, 182 1 
46s. 2d. 



26, October, 1822 
38s. id. 



19, October, 1832 
5 is. 3d. 



206 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

which evidence gives a cle^ar account of the effect of the depres- 
sion in this respect. 

There still existed large numbers of landowning farmers in the 
various parts of England in 1833. 1 Many of these men held 
estates which had been handed down from father to son for many 
generations, 2 while large numbers had purchased the land they 
occupied. 3 But these yeomen farmers were hard pressed and 
many had sold their land before 1833. When we go carefully- 
through the minutes of evidence given before the committee we 
are especially impressed with the rapid decrease in the number of 
landowning farmers which had taken place after the war and 
before 1833. In Cumberland and Westmoreland the number had 
" considerably diminished." 4 Up to the war, properties had con- 
tinued long in the same families, 5 but in 1833, Mr. Blamire said 
he believed that since 181 5 a greater change had taken place in 
the proprietorship of the small farms than in any antecedent 
period of much longer duration. 6 In 1837, Blamire was again 
before the committee, and says : " The condition (of the land- 
owning farmers in Cumberland) is generally speaking most piti- 
able. At the present moment they are as a body, in fact, ceasing 
to exist at all." 7 Mr. Merry, the owner and occupier of a three- 
hundred-acre farm in the North Riding of Yorkshire, stated that 
in the different dales in the district where he lived the farmers 
had nearly all been w ancient freeholders " ; but the number of 
such farmers had been " regularly lessening for ten years," during 
which time they had been reduced about a seventh. 8 From 
Mr. W. Simpson we learn that the landowning farmers were 
" nearly all gone " near Doncaster, Yorkshire. 9 In Nottinghamshire 
there were " comparatively very few remaining." 10 In Leicester- 
shire, Northumberland, and the Midland counties, generally, small 

1 Parliamentary Papers, 1833, Vol. V, questions 6695, 2346, 5819, 5820, 412, 
413, 414, 415, 8474, 1691, 2413, 2196, 2202, 7375, 6405, 9486, 8823, 1262, 9196. 

2 Ibid., 1702, 6061, 416, 1696, 2420, 9930. 

3 Ibid., questions 3105, 3106, 12, 216, 7902, 5820, 416, 532, 2197, 9928, 4862- 
4866; ibid., 1836, Vol. VIII, questions 1192, 1268-1269. 

4 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V, question 6697. 

6 Ibid., question 6958. 8 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V, questions 2439, 2533. 

6 Ibid., question 6701. 9 Ibid., question 3105. 

7 Ibid., 1837, Vol. V, question 5107. 10 Ibid., S. Wooley, questions 12, 216. 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 207 

proprietors farming their own land were numerous, but "a great 
many of them " had been ruined. 1 In Shropshire and in Chesh- 
ire the number of " small landed proprietors " had " greatly 
diminished, . . . since the year 1800." 2 In Herefordshire there 
were still a great many yeomen, but fewer than twenty years 
earlier. 3 In Worcestershire a good many freeholders, who 
farmed their own lands, had sold out. 4 In Kent, near Rochester, 
no great number had gone to the wall, but they were poor, many 
of them living little better than workingmen. 5 Such farmers 
were yet numerous in Hampshire and West Sussex, but many 
had been compelled to sell their estates, 6 and those who remained 
were " much reduced in point of circumstances." In Wiltshire 
the number of landowning farmers had diminished " most mate- 
rially " within the last fifteen years. 7 In Somersetshire land had 
been changing hands a great deal since the war, and the number 
of farmers who bought land was not so great as the number of 
those who had sold. 8 It was the custom there for the landlords 
to "run out" the life leases and not make any new ones. 9 Thus 
all the evidence points to the conclusion that an unusually rapid 
decline of the yeomanry had taken place during the period of the 
agricultural depression which followed the close of the Napoleonic 
wars. We shall now investigate somewhat in detail the causes of 
this unusually rapid decline. 

Extravagance (living beyond one's income) often leads to bank- 
ruptcy in all lines of business, and it would be strange indeed if 
this were not, occasionally, the cause which compels farmers to 
sell their estates. From Norden we learn that in 1607 this was 
sometimes the cause of failure on the part of landowning farmers 
in England. 10 In 1833, a great many of the yeomen of Cheshire 
were living beyond their means. During the period of high prices 
they had accustomed themselves to a standard of living which 
they were unable to maintain after prices had fallen, without 

1 Parliamentary Papers, Buckley, questions 8574, 8579, 8581, 8587. 

2 Ibid., Lee, questions 5825, 6158. 7 Ibid., questions 9923, 9926. 

3 Ibid., questions 8475. 8 Ibid., question 1262. 

4 Ibid., question 1697. 9 Ibid., questions 9208-9209. 

5 Ibid., questions 6405-6413. 10 Ibid., questions 4970-4974. 

6 Surveyors' Dialogue, Edition of 161 8, pp. 81 et seq. 



208 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

gradually consuming their estates. Lee says of this class, V Their 
property is nearly gone." 1 There is a suggestion that a change 
of this kind in the habits of the yeomen farmers may have been 
the occasion of forced sales of land in Worcestershire 2 and in 
Somersetshire. 3 

But while extravagance may at times have been the cause 
of failure, the yeomen as a class were industrious and frugal. 4 
Speaking of the yeomanry of Cumberland, Blamire says they 
"are quite as frugal as the tenantry and often more so, and 
their situation is often worse. . . . They equally lodge their 
laborers in their own houses, and dine at the same table with 
them." 5 Having to give up their estates was "by no means the 
effect of improvidence on their part." 6 Mr. W. Thurnall said 
that in Cambridgeshire the yeomen were very economical and 
always hard-working men. 7 " There is not a more industrious 
man in the three counties," says J. B. Turner, "than a man in 
Herefordshire whose estate has been sold under bankruptcy." 8 

It was not, as a rule, lack of frugality and industry which ruined 
so many of the yeomanry during this period of depression ; it was 
primarily the fall in prices at a time when indebtedness was very 
prevalent with this class. 9 This indebtedness was sometimes 
incurred for the purpose of purchasing land, sometimes for 
improvements, often to provide for the younger members of the 
family, and, occasionally, to cover general living expenses. 

Mr. W. Simpson told the committee of 1833 that the yeomanry 
near Doncaster were " many of them bankrupts." " Farmers who, 
having four or five thousand pounds, bought farms twenty-five or 
thirty years ago, borrowing part of the purchase money, have been 
obliged to sell, and they have nothing left." 10 In Nottingham- 
shire "a great number bought land at high prices, and having 

1 Parliamentary Papers, 1833, Vol. V, questions 5816-5817. 

2 Ibid., 'question 1700. 6 Ibid., 1837, Vol. V, question 51 11. 

3 Ibid., question 9206. 7 Ibid., 1836, Vol. VIII, question 2423. 

4 Ibid., questions 1704, 8585. 8 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V, question 8477. 

5 Ibid., questions 6705-6706. 

9 Ibid., questions 6707 et seq., 2346, 6063, 532, 598, 1701, 4401, 4402, 9935, 
9206; ibid., 1836, Vol. VIII, question 11310; ibid., 1837, Vol. V, question 5108. 
10 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V, questions 3 102-3 108. 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 209 

mortgaged their farms for more than their value at the reduced 
prices, they have been almost universally ruined." * This class 
of farmers met with the same misfortune in Lincolnshire. 2 In 
Cheshire "a great many farmers got a considerable sum of 
money, and were made to lay it out in land. They purchased 
land at forty years' purchase, in some instances, and borrowed 
probably half the money," and soon after, the produce sold for 
so much less than formerly that they could not pay the interest 
on the money they had borrowed and were ? obliged to sell their 
properties for what they could get." 3 In Shropshire, again, 
farmers paid high prices for land and " borrowed money, as much 
as they could sell the property for afterwards." 4 These same 
stories are repeated for Norfolk, 5 Hampshire, 6 Somersetshire, 7 
Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. 8 

Improvements do not appear to have been very generally the 
occasion of indebtedness, but in some instances the witnesses 
before the select committee gave this as an important cause. 9 

The provision for younger children, or the paying off of the 
other heirs when one member of the family took the estate, was 
often the occasion of heavy indebtness. In Cumberland the 
lt statesmen " had large families and " from a miscalculation of 
their real situation " they left their children " larger fortunes than 
they ought to have done," and saddled the oldest son with the 
payment of a sum of money which it was impossible for him to 

1 Parliamentary Papers, questions 12,216, 12,219. 

2 Ibid., question 7903. 5 Ibid., question 2197. 

3 Ibid., question 5820. 6 Ibid., question 9928. 

4 Ibid., question 532. 7 Ibid., questions 4862-4866. 

8 Ibid., 1836, Vol. VIII, questions 1192, 1268. 

9 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V. Commencing with 5816, Lee, Cheshire, the minutes 
read : " If a yeoman, tempted by high prices of the war, had borrowed money to 
improve his little property, what would be the condition of that man with the 
'prices falling, the debt remaining and his own habits remaining the same ? " The 
witness replies, " Entire ruin." Again, with Buckley from the Midland counties 
as witness, the minutes, 8582 et seq., read as follows : " From your own knowledge, 
were not many of these small proprietors tempted during the war to borrow 
money to improve their lands ? No doubt about that. . . . Those parties, without 
any fault of their own, have been by this debt, contracted for the improvement of 
their estates, worked out of their estates ? Completely so, without the least fault 
of their own. ... I know many who have been . . . ruined [in this way]." 



210 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

pay. 1,2 This is given as an important cause of indebtedness in Not- 
tinghamshire, 3 Somersetshire, 4 Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. 5 

Thus it would seem that in 1833 these small estates were very 
generally encumbered. The indebtedness had been incurred during 
the period of high prices, and when prices fell the debt was often 
equal to if not greater than the value of the land. The whole net 
product would not, in many cases, pay the interest. Where this 
did not force the yeomen to give up their estates at once, the 
land usually came into the market at the death of the owner, as 
no member of the family cared, as a rule, to take up the burden 
of mortgaged ownership which had come to be looked upon as 
less desirable than tenancy. 6 This fall of prices at a time when 
mortgages were very prevalent was the immediate cause of the 
rapid decline in landownership on the part of farmers during the 
twenties, thirties and forties of the nineteenth century. 

When this land came upon the market it was usually pur- 
chased by greater landlords, merchants or manufacturers, 7 who 

1 This system seems comparable to Anerbrecht in Germany. 

2 Parliamentary Papers, 1833, Vol. V, question 1704; ibid., 1837, Vol. V, 
question 5107. 

3 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V, questions 12,216-12,219. 

4 Ibid., question 9198. 

5 Ibid., 1836, Vol. VIII, question 1192 et seq. 

6 It is a common saying in England that "the lendlord is worse than the 
landlord." 

7 Parliamentary Papers, 1833, Vol. V, question 6699: "As these small estates 
(in the northern counties) are brought to market do small proprietors step in and 
buy them, or are they absorbed into large properties ? Frequently absorbed into 
large properties, but occasionally bought by men who have realized money in 
trade or in large farms, and who are withdrawing their capital and . . . and invest- 
ing it in the purchase of landed property." In Kent, question 6412, these small 
estates are " generally bought by some one who has an estate adjoining." 

Question 2348 : " As those small proprietors (in the North Riding of York- 
shire) have sold out, who have become the purchasers ? In some measure large 
proprietors that were adjoining, but chiefly tradesmen and shipowners from 
Scarborough. . . . There is none of it sold to ancient freeholders ; it has changed 
hands completely, and gone to people who are strangers to the neighborhood." 
In Cheshire, question 6157, these small properties were " absorbed into larger 
estates or (purchased) by large manufacturers, who have laid out a good deal of 
money." Again, in Wiltshire, question 1270, "They are generally bought by 
gentlemen who have adjoining estates ; there are very few estates now purchased 
by the yeomanry for occupation." Question 7379: "When they (the small free- 
holds in Kent, Surrey and Essex) have been sold, by whom have they been 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 21 1 

very rarely cared to put it upon the market again ; and thus the 
results of this temporary depression have been more permanent 
than we should expect in a country where landownership on a 
large scale does not involve so many social advantages, and where 
systems of primogeniture and entail do not bind the large estates 
together permanently. 

The yeomen farmers were gradually reduced in number, 1 
decade after decade, until by the close of the third quarter of the 
century they were found only here and there ; and tenancy was 
the rule. 2 In 1883 John Rae estimated that probably not more 

bought ? I think by persons in trade in the towns, and so on." Question 9208 : 
" Sometimes the yeomen's estates (in Somersetshire) have been bought by other 
small proprietors, and sometimes by gentlemen of large landed properties." 
Question 1703: "Who generally bought those estates (in Worcestershire) so sold? 
Gentlemen in the neighborhood, principally for investment." Question 1704: 
" Not small capitalists ? No, they have never purchased since those high times 
in 1811 and 1812." Question 2534: "In former years when a freehold was sold 
there was another freeholder at hand to purchase the property, but now they 
have to get a purchaser from . . . some trading place." Question 8580 : "A great 
deal has been bought in the Midland counties by manufacturers ; some have 
been purchased for accommodation by adjoining proprietors, but generally by 
manufacturers or the great landed proprietors." 

1 Formerly there were many small proprietors in England who formed an im- 
portant class in the State; they were called yeomen, to distinguish them from the 
landed gentry, who were called squires. These yeomen have almost disappeared 
but not by any violent revolution. The change has taken place voluntarily and 
imperceptibly. They have sold their small properties to become farmers, because 
they found it more profitable; and most of them have succeeded; those remaining 
will most likely shortly follow the example. — Lavergne, V Rural Economy of 
England," 1855, pp. 113-114. 

2 The land of the United Kingdom may be said to be now (1878) almost 
wholly cultivated by tenant farmers. The class of yeomen, or small landowners 
farming their own land, is found here and there in England, but scarcely at all 
in Scotland, and now bears but small proportion to the whole. Many of the large 
landowners retain a farm under their own management for home supplies or for 
the breeding of selected stock ; very few as a matter of business or profit. — 
James Caird, "General View of British Agriculture,"/. R. A. S. E., 1878, 2d s., 
Vol. XIV, Pt. II, p. 32. 

A few quotations from the Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 
as found in the parliamentary papers for the years 1881 and 1882, amplify this 
statement of Caird's : 

" My report," says Mr. Coleman, in speaking of Yorkshire, " is noticeably 
deficient in any information as to the status and prospect of peasant proprietors, 
because this class does not exist in Yorkshire ; the nearest approach to them is 
to be found in small freeholders far up the dells, whose position, as far as I could 



212 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

than 5 per cent of the farmers of England owned the land which 
they cultivated. 1 

THE RECENT DEPRESSION AND THE PRESENT SITUATION 

By 1836 the depression which followed the war had practi- 
cally ceased and the period from this date until 1875 was, on the 
whole, an era of great prosperity for English agriculture. The 

learn, was in many cases a shade worse than occupiers of small holdings " 
(Parliamentary Papers, 1881, C.-2778.-II, p. 176). 

In his report on Lincolnshire, Mr. Druce says, " There are large numbers 
... of small freeholders in the Isle of Axholme. . . . Here the small freeholders 
appear to have existed for many years." (Parliamentary Papers, 1881, C.-2778- 
II, p. 384.) In the eastern-central, and southern, and eastern parts of the 
county small freeholders are also numerous. They are to be found south of 
Boston in South Holland, notably in Kirton and some other villages in that 
locality ; again west of Boston to Eildmore Fen, and the West Fen, and north of 
Boston, running quite up to the Humbre at a little distance from the sea coast, 
but not on it, there are also large numbers of them {ibid., p. 385). 

In Durham many of the small estates had been absorbed by the large ones. 
" The yeomen are passing away, generally to the great advantage of the com- 
munity, as the land in the hands of large proprietors is as a rule better managed 
and far more productive." "I am bound to say," continues Mr. Coleman, "that the 
inferior and comparatively neglected condition of small freeholds interspersed 
among some of the larger estates was very apparent, and seemed to indicate that 
a still further absorption which, in the nature of things, must sooner or later 
occur, will be beneficial rather than otherwise. Of course in making this state- 
ment, I do not say there are not notable exceptions ; but what I have stated is 
the general rule " {ibid., p. 216). 

Mr. Doyle, in commenting upon the improvements in agriculture as in part 
due to the decline of landownership on the part of the farmers, says : "The class 
of freeholders, such as the * statesmen ' of the north, or the ' grey coats ' farther 
south, are gradually disappearing through force of a law that is more effective 
than legislation " {ibid., p, 260). 

Druce reports on the counties of Essex, Hertford, Huntingdon, Leicester, 
Norfolk, Northampton, Rutland and Suffolk, and for these counties the common 
statement runs, " Peasant proprietors are rare and not more prosperous than the 
tenant farmers," or " The number of peasant proprietors is very small," or 
" There are hardly any peasant'proprietors in the county " (Parliamentary Papers, 
1882, C.-3375, pp. 5, 33, 34, 46, 65, 70, 87, 91, 29). "The Fen district of Cam- 
bridgeshire is noted as an exception to this rule " {ibid., p. 14). And of Hert- 
fordshire he states, " It seems to me that there were proportionately a larger 
number of yeomen owners, that is to say, of' farms 100 to 500 acres, in this 
county than in any other in my district " {ibid., p. 34). 

1 John Rae, "Why have the Yeomen Perished?" Contemporary Review, 
October, 1883. 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 213 

repeal of the corn laws in 1846 wrought no important immediate 
results. The demand for agricultural produce was so great in 
England that large quantities had to be supplied from abroad. 
Some of this necessary supply had to be imported at great ex- 
pense ; hence the prices of home productions were usually very 
high. Tenant farmers made much money and lived in a very high 
style ; some of them even afforded liveried coachmen. During this 
period of prosperity fanners sometimes purchased land. A slight 
movement in this direction to some extent counteracted the result 
of the tendency on the part of landowning farmers to alienate 
their estates. 

But by 1875 the foreign wheat supply had become more easily 
accessible as well as more abundant ; and the depression which 
followed ruined hundreds of farmers and rendered many of the 
landlords comparatively poor. There are many phases of this 
depression which have a peculiar interest to the agricultural econo- 
mist, but none other could be studied with more profit than the 
inability of the landlords and the farmers to adjust themselves 
to the new situation. The depression has now practically passed, 
not because prices are better, but because a new generation of 
farmers who are willing and able to adjust themselves to the 
conditions under which world competition has placed them have 
taken the place of those who could not succeed without high prices. 

We are interested in this depression because of the effect it 
had upon the few remaining farmers who owned land. In 1895 
the Royal Commission on Agriculture sent assistant commissioners 
into the various parts of the country to gather information con- 
cerning the effects of the agricultural depression. Many of these 
assistant commissioners did not report upon the landowning 
farmers, — possibly because they found no representatives of this 
class, — but others have given valuable bits of information. 

Cumberland still retained some of her statesmen in 1895, 
but the problems of the second quarter of the century were still 
confronting them. 1 In consequence of the legacies and annuities 
which eldest sons had to pay on the basis of the high prices which 

1 The Report by Mr. W. Fox, Parliamentary Papers, 1895, C.-7915-I, §51, 
forms the basis of this paragraph. 



214 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

prevailed before the depression of 1875, a great many yeomen 
farmers were - overhead and ears in debt." Not only had prices 
fallen but the number of years' purchase at which land could be 
bought had been reduced. These estates were usually mortgaged, 
and often so heavily that the farmer who nominally owned his 
land had more to pay as interest than the tenant farmers paid as 
rent. It is said that this class of farmers had been gradually 
decreasing in numbers for many years. 

•• There have been three causes for the gradual diminution in 
numbers of the statesmen," says Mr. Fox. " In the first place, 
many of them, tempted by the high prices offered for their land 
by large landowners, have sold. . . . Secondly, a number of them, 
since the lower prices, have let their land to tenants. But, thirdly, 
the qualities which are necessary to ensure success on a small 
holding, and which should be conspicuous both in the owner and 
his wife, namely, energy and thrift, are not necessarily hereditary 
qualities . . . and there are cases where land has had to be sold 
because the mode of life which was pursued by the father and 
accompanied by success was not acceptable to the son." 

In Westmoreland the landowning farmers had gradually disap- 
peared until, in 1895, they were nearly extinct. ■ ' However we 
may regret the change," to quote Coleman, after Wilson Fox, J f it 
appears to have been inevitable. Land is an expensive luxury 
and not a profitable investment. As civilization progressed and 
the cost of living increased, returns were not proportionately ad- 
vanced. The land became gradually burdened with charges, and, 
often suffering in condition, was eventually parted with, going 
as a rule to swell the larger estates. Nor, as regards the public 
advantage, need such a result be lamented, for it is quite certain 
that a flourishing tenantry under a liberal and wealthy owner are 
far more productive than owners whose means are too straightened 
to allow of the proper application of capital. Probably the most 
complete illustration of this change is seen in the Earl of Bective's 
fine property at Underly, which comprises about 25,000 acres, 
... A large part of this property was formerly owned by small 
proprietors, mostly statesmen. These men held on as long as 
possible, and were eaten up by debts and charges, and the soil 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 215 

wretchedly impoverished. The trustees of the late Alderman 
Thomson, who himself, if I mistake not, sprang from a statesman 
family, bought up the farms by degrees, and there is still money 
waiting similar investments. In no case did the investment pay 
more than 2| per cent on the purchase money. In many cases 
the former owners continued as the tenants ; and when the land 
was drained and limed and proper buildings erected, these men, 
who were formerly hard up, became well-to-do farmers. ... The 
Underly estate probably yields more than double the produce of 
which the land was capable when divided and ill-managed." 1 

Writing of this same estate, Lefevre gives some additional 
facts which are very interesting and give clearness to the picture. 
V This great property . . . was gradually accumulated and purchased 
under the express direction of the will of a man who, two genera- 
tions ago, made a large fortune in trade, and whose only daughter 
married a nobleman. The estate was made up of two hundred and 
twenty-six different purchases, nearly all of them cases where the 
vendors belonged to the class of yeomen farmers, or statesmen, as 
they are called in that district, who, themselves and their ancestors, 
had cultivated their own lands for many generations. Instead, 
then, of two hundred and twenty-six distinct owners of land, there 
is now a single owner. It may safely be assumed, in respect of 
this great property, that, under the existing system of family entail 
permissible by law, it will for generations to come remain intact 
in a single ownership." 2 

Lincolnshire still possessed a large number of small peasant 
proprietors and some large yeomen farmers in 1895. Many 
farmers had bought land during the prosperous times prior to 
1875 and had paid double the price for which it would sell after 
the fall in prices had brought on the depression. A large pro- 
portion of the purchase money had frequently been obtained by 
giving a mortgage on the land, and in some cases the land had 
fallen in value until it was worth less than the face value of the 
mortgage. Fox says of these men, " Many . . . have already sunk, 

1 Report of Wilson Fox (Assistant Commissioner, Royal Commission of 
Agriculture), Parliamentary Papers, 1895, C.-7915-I. 

2 G. Shaw- Lefevre, M.P., Agrarian Tenures, p. 12. 



2i6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

overwhelmed by the burden of interest they had to pay." 1 
Mr. Fox devotes several pages to the condition of the small 
landowning farmers of the southern part of Lincolnshire. Most 
of these people worked hard and lived poorly. In reading the 
report one might easily think Mr. Fox was paraphrasing Young's 
report on the same district, written one hundred years before, were 
it not for the further evidence of ruin on every hand. In speaking 
of these small proprietors, Fox says, " The possession of land has 
been the ruin of hundreds in the past and is a mill-stone around 
the neck of hundreds in the present. Not the least regrettable 
reflection in this sad story is that most of these small owners are 
the flower of a class, the pick of the foremen and the laborers, 
who excelled in the performance of their duties, who toiled and 
saved and denied themselves for years to raise themselves out of 
one class into another, and who, when they had bought their in- 
dependence and a new social position, found themselves bound to 
admit failure, their hard savings gone, their energies wasted, their 
hopes crushed, to retrace their steps back into the ranks out 
of which they had stepped, at a time of life when they had 
expended much of their vitality and all their ambition." 2 

In Cambridgeshire the depression proved very disastrous to 
the farmers generally. The landowning farmers, burdened with 
mortgages, were the first to succumb ; and those of this class 
who remained, in 1895, were in great straits. "In several 
districts," says Fox, "evidence was privately given me of this, 
and in one of them a gentleman, who was in the position to 
know the facts, stated that all the yeoman farmers there . . . 
were heavily mortgaged." 3 

" We have had a good many yeomen in the county of Norfolk," 
said Mr. Read before the commission in 1897, "and I say that 
they are much the hardest hit of all. They have to bear both the 
losses of the landlord and the losses of the tenant, and there have 
been the most disastrous failures. A good many of our farmers 

1 Fox, "Lincolnshire," in Parliamentary Papers, 1895, C. 7571. 

2 Ibid., § 190. 

3 Ibid., " Report on the County of Cambridge," in Parliamentary Papers, 
1895, C.-7871, §53. 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 217 

were told twenty-five years ago that the best thing that they could 
do was to buy their farms, and they did so, but they had not 
enough cash, and they had to mortgage their farms. They have 
gone to the wall worse by far than the common tenant farmers. 
There are a good many of our old and most respected yeomen who 
have disappeared within the last few years. I feel confident that they 
will almost all of them go unless there is a change for the better." 1 

Speaking of Suffolk, Mr. Everett of the commission said, " We 
had a great many yeomen farmers and in the intense competition 
for land in the good times, a great many men took that course of 
making themselves, as they thought, independent ; they bought 
land and mortgaged it, and I should think three-quarters of that 
class of men are now stripped of every penny they had." 2 

During the " good times " the farmers of Wiltshire saved 
money and many of them were able to purchase farms, but as in 
other places, they borrowed money and their investment proved 
disastrous. One witness cited- four instances within his own 
knowledge of farmers who bought their farms about 1875. Of 
these, two had come to grief and absconded, a third had lost his 
farm, which was in the hands of the mortgagee, while the fourth 
was still holding his land. 3 

In speaking of the condition of landowning farmers in general, 
the final report of the royal commission states that "As a rule 
their properties, whether inherited or purchased by the present 
proprietors, are charged with mortgages, and the mortgagee makes 
no remission of the interest due to him. In consequence of the 
shrinkage in the value of land, the interest on the mortgage has 
become in many cases a burden which the owner has been unable 
to bear, and frequently where the yeoman farmer has succeeded 
in paying the interest due from him it has been a heavier rent 
than he would have paid to a landlord." 4 

In 1900 over twenty-one million (21,286,632) acres, or 86.1 
per cent of all the land under crops and grasses in England, was 

1 Read, Parliamentary Papers, 1897, C.-8540, § 113. 

2 Parliamentary Papers, 1897, C.-8540, § 113. 

3 Rew, Parliamentary Papers, 1895, C.-7624, § 28. 

4 Parliamentary Papers, 1897, C.-8540, § 113. 



21 8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

occupied by tenant farmers ; while about three and one-half million 
(3,427,158) acres, or 13.9 per cent, was occupied by owners. 1 
But of this three and a half million acres no great extent was 
occupied by yeoman farmers. Indeed, the landowning farmers 
are at the present time very rare in England. By making close 
inquiry while passing through more than half of the counties of 
England in 1899, the writer found a scattering few who owned 
the land which they cultivated, but such farmers were extremely 
rare. The greater part of the land designated as " occupied 
by owners" was composed of the V home farms " of landlords, and 
of farms which they had not been able to rent since the depres- 
sion. In this way the Duke of Grafton occupied five farms be- 
side his home farm, in 1899. The five farms aggregated five 
thousand four hundred and ninety acres. Each one of these 
farms, as well as the home farm, had a bailiff upon it. There 
were more than seventeen thousand (17,189) farm bailiffs in 
England according to the census of 1891. Tenant farmers who 
keep bailiffs are very rare. The vast majority of these bailiffs 
were, doubtless, operating land which is recorded in the agri- 
cultural returns as "occupied by owners." Between 1871 and 
1 88 1 the number of bailiffs increased nearly three thousand 
(2889), which may fairly be looked upon as the number of farms 
which could not be rented, and which the landlords preferred to 
farm in this way rather than leave the land to grow up in weeds. 
This gives some notion of the extent to which land has been 
compulsorily cultivated by landlords. 2 

The agricultural returns for 1898 indicate that 25 per cent of 
the farm land of Kent was occupied by owners. In commenting 
upon this fact Mr. Whitehead says, " Much of this land occupied 

1 Parliamentary Papers, 1901 (House of Commons), Vol. LXXXVIII, p. 38. 

2 In 1899 the writer met many estate agents desirous of finding tenant 
farmers who would rent the farms which were then being farmed by bailiffs, and 
hence reported in the agricultural returns as land cultivated by owners. 
Between 1895 and 1900 the percentage of the land under crops and grass 
in England which was occupied by tenants increased from 85.1 per cent to 86.1 
per cent, which shows that about one-fifteenth of the land farmed by owners in 
1895 was in the hands of tenants in 1900 (Parliamentary Papers, 1896, Vol. XCII, 
p. 48 ; ibid., 1901, Vol. LXXXVIII, p. 38). 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 219 

by owners is farmed by them compulsorily, on account of the 
failures of tenants and of inability to replace them, and the 
amount of land thus held by the owners has increased nearly 
20 per cent in the last ten years. The small landowners have 
in most instances been compelled to sell their land, and the 
yeoman of Kent has practically disappeared." 1 

Today practically all the farmers in England lease the land which 
they occupy. The young man becomes a tenant farmer with the 
expectation of remaining such all his life. When money has been 
saved he looks for a larger farm where he may employ his surplus 
funds, but very rarely does he even think of investing in land. 
To an American this seems strange, and one may be tempted to 
say that it is because there is no land on the market ; but while 
there is much land which cannot be sold, there is always land for 
sale in England. 

The writer has talked with many English farmers upon this 
subject and has been told on every hand that they cannot afford 
to "lock up their capital in land," they need it all for stocking 
their farms. And this is not because the farmers are poorer than 
American farmers but because land has long been worth very 
much more, and from forty to fifty dollars an acre is required to 
stock a farm in such a manner as will make it bring profitable 
returns. 2 It would not be far wrong to say that, with conditions as 
they were before 1875, it required as much wealth to stock a 
farm in England as it did to own and stock a farm of the same 
size in most parts of the United States. If the farmer is to own 
land he must, as a rule, reduce the scale of his operations ; for 
when he invests in both land and stock the farm must be much 
smaller than if he invests in the stock only and leases the land. 
This is very undesirable, not because small farms are less profit- 
able, though for some purposes they are, but because investments 
in land do not yield more than 2J or 3 per cent, while good 
farmers count on making 10 per cent on their investments in stock. 

The farmer who would buy land must not only be willing to 

1 " Sketch of the Agriculture of Kent," p. 4, of author's reprint. 

2 This is due partly to the fact that stock and machinery cost more ; for 
example, eighty dollars is the ordinary price for a milk cow of common stock. 



220 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

take a return on his investment much less than he can make by 
investing it in farming, and even less by 2 or 3 per cent than 
he would have to pay for borrowed money, but the fees and 
other charges which he must pay for transferring land are so high 
that they amount to an important per cent of the price of the land. 
The smaller the purchase the greater, relatively, is this expense. 
In case of a large estate the cost of making a transfer is compar- 
atively small, but where the purchase money is one thousand 
pounds or less the charges are enormous. Hoskyns 1 gives a set of 
tables showing the cost of transferring land. According to those 
figures the purchaser's average expense, irrespective of the stamp 
duty, for purchases of one thousand pounds or less in value was 
about 6 per cent of the purchase money, and in one case where 
the sum paid for the land was only one hundred pounds, the 
purchaser's expense of transfer, aside from the stamp duty, was 
more than 23 per cent. It is claimed that the vender's expenses 
were, in every case, much higher. 

There has been an agitation in recent years which looks towards 
the reestablishment of peasant proprietors in England. The Small 
Holdings Act of 1892 2 made provisions by which each county 
council was empowered to acquire land, improve it and sell it 
to the small farmers on unusually favorable terms, but this has 
had no important influence upon the ownership of land by the 
farming classes. 

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS 

We have seen that two hundred years ago more than half 
the farmers of England owned the land which they cultivated. 
Today practically all are tenants. 

This extinction of the yeomanry took place in some parts of 
England during the eighteenth century. In some counties this 
was a result of the " new agriculture " which made enclosures and 
large farms more profitable than small farms in the common fields. 
The new agriculture required, also, that more capital be applied 

1 " Systems of Land Tenure," Cobden Club Essays. 

2 55 and 56 Vict. C, 31. 



DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS 221 

upon each acre, and calculating farmers found it profitable to rent 
as much land as they had the money to stock rather than to lock 
up their capital by investing it in high-priced land. In other 
counties the yeomen farmers were crowded out by gentlemen 
farmers — men who, having made money in other pursuits, 
became farmers because agriculture was the favored pursuit 
among the wealthy classes of England. 

But taking England as a whole there was no marked decline 
of the yeomanry uritil the third decade of the nineteenth century. 
Between 1820 and 1875 the number of landowning farmers was 
gradually reduced to insignificance. During this period the fact 
of greater returns on investments in farm stock than in land 
remained a constant factor. The neighboring landlords and men 
of wealth generally were still ready to consolidate small estates 
into large ones. But the condition which led to a rapid decline 
during this period was the fall in prices. During the Napoleonic 
wars, when prices were high and rising higher, it was possible 
to buy land and pay for it out of the profits of farming. It was 
then the common thing for the more successful farmers to invest 
their savings in land. As a rule, they purchased more than they 
could at once pay for and gave a mortgage to secure the payment 
of the indebtedness thus incurred. It was also common among 
the yeomanry for one son to succeed to the family patrimony 
upon the payment of certain sums for the provision of his 
brothers and sisters. Thus it was that a large proportion of the 
yeomen farmers were burdened with indebtedness which the fall 
in prices made it impossible for them to pay. Some sold their 
encumbered farms within a few years. Others held out longer, 
but in time they too gave up or died, and their farms were sold. 

Farmers rarely invested in land after 1820. The farms were 
sold to wealthy men who wished to build up family estates. These 
large estates were valued for the social standing which they confer 
upon their owners as well as for their returns in the form of rent. 
They are commonly kept intact by a system of entails so that once 
the small estates become incorporated into the larger ones, they 
rarely come into the market again. There is still land for sale in 
England, but the price is so high, compared with the value of 



222 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

produce, the expense of making the transfer so great and the 
land-credit system so poor that farmers do not often care to in- 
dulge in the luxury of landownership. On the other hand, the 
relation between landlord and tenant is very satisfactorily arranged, 
the farmers are, as a rule, contented with the present system, and 
the fields of England prove that landownership on the part of 
farmers is not essential to good agriculture. 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 
AND AGRARIAN POLICY 

An Inaugural Address by Dr. Carl Johannes Fuchs, Pro- 
fessor of Economics and Finance at the University of 
Freiburg, in Breisgau 

(Translated from the German by Dr. Francis Kingsley Ball) 

[The inaugural address delivered on March 2, 1898, before the university 
of this city is here again presented with the omission of introduction and con- 
clusion, involving a slight modification in the arrangement, and with the addi- 
tion of bibliographical references and notes. Apart from these changes the 
address has already appeared in the supplement to the Allge?neine Zeitung, 
Numbers 70 and 71, of March 29 and 30, 1898. It is based on the more com- 
plete treatment of the same material in the author's articles on agrarian history 
in the " Worterbuch der Volkswirthschaft," edited by Elster, now in the course 
of publication by Gustav Fischer at Jena. — Preface] 

IT MAY be said with confidence that no other branch of the 
inquiry into economics, especially into the history of agricul- 
ture, has been so much advanced during the last ten or twelve 
years as that of German agrarian history and the history of the 
older German agrarian policy. The fundamental investigations 
of George Hanssen have been followed by the works of Meitzen, 
Inama-Sternegg, Lamprecht, and Gothein, and by those of Knapp 
and his pupils ; one after another of the great regions of Ger- 
many and one epoch after another have been explored with regard 
to their development along the line of agrarian history and agra- 
rian policy. As a result, the agrarian development of our people, 
at least during the last thousand years, since the time of the 
Carolingians, lies clear and distinct before our eyes. We now 
know how the dualism arose which pervades and infects the 
economic life and thereby the whole economic policy of modern 
Germany, a dualism characterized to-day by the terms East-Elbean 

223 



224 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and West-Elbean Germany. We now know, also, that this 
dualism can bear but superficial examination ; that the agrarian 
development of Germany produced successively three forms of 
rural organization, the results of which exist to-day side by side 
in vast regions and constitute the present agrarian character of 
the German Empire. Indeed, one of these forms is found in 
two separate districts ; so that, to be exact, we should speak of an 
agrarian division of three or four parts. Step by step has the 
path been discovered which led through this period of a thou- 
sand years from the past to the present. We now know why it 
is that to-day, in different parts of our country, things look as 
they do and not otherwise. 

And inasmuch as the government, at least in the largest state 
of our empire, is on the point of directing this development into 
new channels, and we are standing on the threshold of a new 
epoch of agrarian history, the time seems propitious, in the light 
of all this recent literature, to cast a glance backward over the 
traversed way and point out the milestones that mark off its course. 



Agrarian history is the history of the soil and its tillers, the 
history of the rural policy. It has, therefore, always two sides : 
the field system, that is, the technical definition of the arable land ; 
and the system of landownership and of labor, in a sense the 
agrarian organization, or the definition of the rights of the people 
to the soil and to each other in relation to the soil, hence the 
legal and social relations of the owners and tillers. If these two, 
owner and tiller, were not identical, there existed between them 
a relationship of domination and dependence, a relationship which 
did not cease until the present period, with the creation here, as 
in other domains, of the right of free contract. The chief prob- 
lems of agrarian history are, therefore, first, settlement, with the 
resulting subjection of the land in the field system ; secondly, the 
origin of the personal subjection of the tillers, the peasants ; 
thirdly, the dissolution and abolition of this twofold bondage. If 
we assume that personal bondage in the form' of the manorial 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 225 

system originated simultaneously with settlement, two chief epochs 
of agrarian history result ; three epochs if the contrary is held : 
settlement, the development of the manorial system, and the 
emancipation of landed property. In German agrarian history two 
forms of personal bondage, an older and a more recent, must be 
distinguished : the manorial system and estate farming. Indeed, 
these appear not only successively but simultaneously. In only 
one part of Germany has the former changed to the latter. 

Now this resulting dualism of the manorial system and of 
estate farming is identical with the above-mentioned dualism ex- 
isting in the present agrarian policy of the German Empire. It is 
well known that a line drawn approximately from the Elbe and 
Saale divides the empire into two parts of very different rural 
conditions : in the West are found chiefly small or medium-sized 
estates, that is, peasant farms, and only a few large estates ; in 
the East, chiefly large and very large estates, fewer and almost no 
small farms, and these larger than in the Southwest. In the 
eighteenth century, at the beginning of the emancipatory legisla- 
tion, we find, then, west of this boundary the manorial system 
only ; east of it estate farming, springing from the former. But 
this dualism dates back still farther, for that dividing line is 
approximately the old Slavic boundary of the ninth century ; the 
German regions east of the Elbe, where the large estate is found 
in the eighteenth century, form the great territory of colonization, 
which, in the main, was not won back to Germany and German 
civilization until the eleventh century, and which has, in conse- 
quence, a separate agrarian history, about a thousand years later 
than that of the rest of the country. 

I began with the proud words that the investigation of German 
agrarian history and agrarian policy of the last thousand years 
may be for the moment considered as closed ; but it is a general 
experience in all historical research that the better we become 
acquainted with the development of the more immediate past, the 
less secure we feel concerning remoter times, for we no longer 
content ourselves with the conclusions hitherto accepted, and ask 
more and more questions of the earliest period which the mea- 
ger material at hand cannot answer. And so the first epoch of 



226 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

German agrarian history, from remote antiquity to the time of the 
Carolingians, from the first settlement to the rise of the large 
manorial estates, has, in consequence of the conclusive researches 
of recent times, become more uncertain than ever. 

First of all, the old question of the origin and age of the 
manorial system has again arisen, which was discussed so much 
in the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century; the 
question whether, after the first permanent settlement, in the 
adoption of agriculture as the chief means of livelihood the great 
mass of the old Germans were free members of the mark com- 
munity, with equal rights, or peasants subjected to a lord. This 
question was formerly answered one way or another for political 
reasons, the answer serving as a historical justification for or 
rejection of the contemplated or accomplished emancipation of 
the peasants and the granting to them of property. The liberal 
construction prevailed at that time, and has remained in vogue up 
to the present ; but to-day, when such props for emancipating the 
peasants are no longer needed, this prevailing view ? which still forms 
the basis of Meitzen's recent great work, is severely shaken in Ger- 
many by two simultaneous attacks, from independent quarters free 
from political bias, at the hands of Wittich and Hildebrand, after 
having already received similar treatment from Seebohm, Fustel 
de Coulanges, and other foreign writers on agrarian history. 

Wittich, starting with the investigation of the later development 
in Lower Saxony, comes to the conclusion that the manorial sys- 
tem prevailed even in the time of Tacitus ; while Hildebrand, 
from comparative ethnological researches, disputes for the earliest 
period the existence of a free mark and village community, as 
well as that of the manorial system and landed property in gen- 
eral, but contends that the transition to agriculture caused from 
the very outset a certain dependency on the part of those en- 
gaged in it: in the words of the prophet, "Whithersoever this 
implement (the plough) hath gone, bondage and shame have 
followed in its wake." Thus the old hopeless contention over 
Caesar and Tacitus has again burst into flame. 

With this controversy, however, is closely connected the ques- 
tion of the causes of the dualism of colonization in Germany 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 227 

which has come down to our day, the dualism of isolated farm- 
steads and of villages. Against the theory advanced by Meitzen 
but never generally accepted, that the individual farms are Celtic, 
the village settlements Teutonic, are pitted the theories of Knapp, 
Wittich, and Hildebrand : Knapp explains the different forms of 
settlement from the quality of the soil ; Wittich and Hildebrand 
perceive in the individual farmstead the general primitive form of 
settlement. Furthermore, there is the question of the origin of 
the mixed lots, that is, the field system characteristic of the old 
German village settlement, whereby the fields of the individual do 
not form one whole as in the isolated farmsteads, but are divided 
according to the quality of the soil and scattered over a large 
area, lying in neighborly proximity like the farmsteads in the 
village. In this case the question is whether an intentional ration- 
alistic origin of this peculiar division is to be assumed, substan- 
tiating the alleged equal claims of the members of the mark or 
village community to equally valuable lots ; or a historical origin, 
due to the gradual cultivation of the different tracts or to contin- 
uous division ; or else a conscious creation of this system, not by 
a free village community, but by a lord, for the realization not so 
much of like rights as of like duties. Hanssen, Meitzen, Knapp, 
Hildebrand, represent here just so many different theories. 

Finally, if we assume that the origin of the manorial system 
dates from the first settlement, we must necessarily adopt a view, 
different from the current notion, as to the origin of the large 
manorial estates in the time of the Carolingians. It is, then, no 
longer a question of the origin of the manorial system in general, 
but only of the large manorial estates. In accordance with this 
conception the persons described in the deeds of transfer and 
commendation are not formerly free peasants, who give them- 
selves up to a manorial estate, but small lords, who transfer 
their farms, together with the bond peasants settled on them, to 
a greater lord, and receive them back from him in fief. 

It is not here my task to examine these hypotheses with criti- 
cal thoroughness, nor to decide these old and new controversial 
questions ; I scarcely feel competent to do so, and without 
further investigations the solution is as yet wholly impossible. 



228 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

But I will say that in my opinion these questions are well worth 
serious consideration, and that they force us to scrutinize the 
old, generally accepted views, to examine the old material from 
this point of view, and to contribute new material for the final 
decision. The importance of the new hypotheses was recognized 
by the Fifth Historical Congress in placing on its program the 
question of the origin of the manorial system. We need, first 
of all, additional investigations. The Southeast of our empire, 
Bavaria south of the Danube, the Southwest, especially Baden, 
are, for reasons that will appear hereafter, a classical field of 
observation. There village settlement and isolated farmsteads 
appear side by side ; there Roman, Gallic, and German agra- 
rian history have touched and influenced each other. We are 
therefore eagerly expecting the appearance of the second volume 
of Gothein's economic history of the Black Forest. 

II 

Disregarding, therefore, for to-day the uncertain ground of 
the oldest period, and beginning our epitome of German agra- 
rian history with the second great epoch, since the time of the 
Carolingians, we find that while the manorial system is definitely 
established in the older western part of Germany, and in the 
colonized Northeast the system of estate farming is in process of 
formation, throughout the older Germany exists a uniform rural 
system, namely, that of the large manorial estates and villications, 
or bond farms. It is nothing but the transfer of the organization 
of the demesnes created in the year 812 by Charlemagne, in the 
" Capitulare de villis," to the manorial estates of the bishoprics, 
cloisters, princes, and great lords. 

These manorial estates consisted of numerous farmsteads be- 
longing to a lord, and of the manorial or bond farm. The land 
of the latter was cultivated by the compulsory services of the 
peasants in the field and elsewhere, particularly in carting ; but 
these services were only trifling as compared with the tithes 
in money and farm products which the peasants were obliged 
to contribute to the maintenance of the lord's household in re- 
turn for the use of their farms. The smaller manors had from 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 229 

twelve to twenty of these bond peasants ; the large properties, 
particularly the cloisters, had them by the thousands. Although 
these peasants were personally unfree, bond, bound to the soil, 
they nevertheless enjoyed unrestricted civil, rights, formed a 
guild according to the law of the court, and had hereditary right 
of usufruct in their indivisible farms. Their tithes and services, 
fixed from ancient times, were not subject to increase. 

Since these manorial estates were usually not contiguous lots, 
but mixed hides of land, in consequence of which the peasants 
of a village might belong to different manors, it was not possible 
to manage the larger properties from a central point. They 
were divided, therefore, into several bond farms, each of which 
formed, with the peasants belonging to it, a villication, and was 
managed for the lord by one of his agents, the villicus, or 
steward, originally selected from the peasants, later from the min- 
isterials. The agent tilled the manorial land with its own serfs, 
aided by the peasants, and gathered in the tithes for the lord. 

The significance of this entire system is thus summarized by 
Knapp : 

On the one hand we know merely the pursuit of agriculture, and, within 
this, farming on a small scale only, the family farm. On the other hand we 
face the problem of feeding the king, the duke, the count, the freeman ; there 
must also be an economic foundation for churches and cloisters. All this is 
accomplished by the manorial estate. It is the prerequisite for all higher and 
freer pursuits. 

If in this period, approximately from the tenth to the twelfth 
century, the agrarian system was uniform throughout older Ger- 
many, thenceforward the further development follows remark- 
ably divergent courses in the northern and southern halves of 
the country ; so that we must now make a distinction between 
the Northwest and the Southwest. 

In the Northwest, beginning with Lower Saxony, the later 
Hanover, this further development of the manorial system is 
manifested after the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the dis- 
integration of the villications. The desire of an increased in- 
come on the part of the lords, caused by the appearance of the 
monetary regime which followed in the wake of the crusades 



230 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and the mismanagement and dishonesty of the agents, brought 
about, first, the leasing of the villications to the agents for sev- 
eral years against a fixed sum of money or quantity of grain ; 
and then, when this system proved inefficient, the villications 
were disbanded. 

The lord liberated the serfs' persons, but the serfs lost 
thereby their hereditary right in their hides of land. The lord took 
the land back, and, in keeping with the improved methods of 
agriculture which were now in vogue, he merged into one farm 
what had hitherto been four peasant farms of thirty acres each, 
and leased the whole to a freed serf, but now only on the 
terms on which the steward had previously held the entire villi- 
cation, namely, with a stipulated large contribution of grain, the 
amount of which might, on the expiration of the lease, be in- 
creased. Thus originated the peasant stewards of Lower Saxony, 
and the large Lower-Saxon peasant farm of four hides ; and with 
the stewards a new, purely manorial system without authority 
over the person of the peasant, the newer manorial system. 

But what became, then, of the remaining three fourths of the 
peasants ? Some of them were apparently forced down to a 
lower class of the rural population, the cotters, with but little 
land and that not in the arable area. Others moved to the 
towns, then just formed ; and still others, spurred on by need 
rather than by the desire of adventure, moved into the land of 
the Slavs, east of the Elbe, whither they were drawn by two con- 
siderations : personal freedom, so dearly bought, and the heredi- 
tary right of property, which they had lost in their native land. 

This transformation of the manorial system, but recently estab- 
lished by Wittich, took place, in the manner described, only in 
a part of Northwestern Germany, in Lower Saxony; but in West- 
phalia too the agrarian system gradually changed in the same way, 
save a remnant of personal bondage, which constituted, however, 
nothing more than a source of income. 

Soon after the beginning of this process Lower Saxony first wit- 
nessed the conflict between state and manor for the peasant. The 
state, interested because of the taxes it levied on the leased farm, 
came off victorious. In the first place, the lord was prohibited from 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 231 

increasing the rent, and the lessee was, as early as the sixteenth 
century, granted a hereditary right in the farm. 

This was the first and at the same time the most vigorous 
agrarian policy in Germany. No later measure of the third epoch 
has surpassed it. 

But the state went still farther in curtailing the freedom of 
disposal of lord and lessee in regard to leasehold : it made, at 
the end of the seventeenth century, the closed, indivisible farm a 
legal institution, and exercised over it the legal functions of the 
manor. Thus, at the end of the eighteenth century, the private 
lord had become the merest rent collector. 

While thus in Northwestern Germany the system of villication 
was broken up in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the 
newer manorial system and leasehold took its place, it remained 
undisturbed in its older form in most of the regions of Southern, 
Southwestern, and Rhenish Germany, and became after the thir- 
teenth century the settled policy. The serf was made the tribu- 
tary owner. The lord does not succeed in increasing the economic 
yield to the level of the property resulting from the dissolution of 
the villication in Lower Saxony : on the contrary, the manorial 
system gradually vanishes ; it crumbles away of its own accord. 
On the other hand, the right of judicature, severed in principle 
from it, attains here greater significance, and grows in some 
instances into the sovereignty of a small territorial estate. Patri- 
monial jurisdiction and barony are for these regions the charac- 
teristic forms of government. With this right of judicature was 
frequently, but by no means always, coupled personal or heredi- 
tary bondage, which consequently appears here later detached 
from the manor. The peasants are in bondage down to the 
eighteenth century ; but this bondage gradually loses its signifi- 
cance, the serf being bound merely to make sundry contributions, 
although it must be said these are sometimes onerous, as, for 
example, the mortuary. On his personal and social position it 
had ceased to have any effect. 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, things were 
different. The Peasants' War was caused mainly by the numer- 
ous personal contributions which the peasants were obliged to 



232 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

make to many different lords. Their tithes were oppressive ethi- 
cally and socially rather than economically, but these were ex- 
ploited without mercy, and attempts at increasing them were not 
infrequent. To this must be added the usurpation of the common 
pasture. The Twelve Articles call by no means for abolition of all 
tithes, but, generally speaking, only for the reestablishment of the 
old custom and the restitution of the right to the common land. 

In the North, and later in the Northeast, the agrarian system 
was subjected to a seasonable transformation, adapted to the gen- 
eral economic conditions, and inducive to economic progress. It 
was, in consequence, so consistent and rational that reactions of 
the peasantry affected and injured by the change were only of 
exceptional occurrence. In the Northwest, as we have seen, the 
supreme power of the state was soon exercised in behalf of the 
peasant. Its aim was not to free him, but to protect him ; and 
this object was attained. In the South, on the contrary, particu- 
larly in the Southwest, the old system was not completely re- 
placed, the peasants not personally emancipated ; and so they 
did not have the least participation in the civilization of the out- 
going Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, although the move- 
ment had its inception in this very region. They were socially of 
low standing and economically backward, since no radical refor- 
mation of the economic policy forced them to greater exertion of 
their powers and to spiritual emancipation, as was the case with 
the Northwest. It was the obsolete, the irrational, under which 
both parties chafed. The bondsman, fretting under the tithes and 
particularly under the disdainful treatment of the hated clergy 
and bureaucracy, who represented the small territorial government, 
found in the Peasants' War a free outlet for his long-suppressed 
passions. It is always needless oppression that embitters most 
strongly. In these regions, which harbored the oldest civilization 
and densest population and practiced the division of farms, there 
was a contributory cause in the incipient formation of a rural 
proletariat. 

Since the issues were, however, not comprehensive economic 
principles, and a change in the system or a check of the growing 
oppression did not threaten the economic existence of the lord or 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 233 

the patrimonial judge (who is here the more important element 
of the two), conditions after the Peasants' War, in spite of the 
defeat of the peasants, did not in general grow worse. The con- 
trary, rather, took place. The wanton manipulation and augmen- 
tation of those mainly personal tithes was somewhat discouraged. 
Since the sixteenth century the condition of the peasantry in the 
Southwest has, for the most part, not essentially deteriorated. 

Far different was the course of development in the Northeast, 
in the regions east of the Elbe, which were not Germanized and 
colonized until after the twelfth century. The real decline of the 
peasants, the gradual deterioration of their condition that sprang 
from colonization, dates from this very period, from the develop- 
ment of the system of estate farming and the rise of the large 
farming estates. 

These regions, won partly by the sword, partly by peaceful 
means through the conversion of the native ruler, were, as a 
result of a vast colonization that took place between the twelfth 
and the fourteenth century, opened up to German civilization. 
Everywhere the German monk and knight were followed by the 
German peasant with the heavy German plough. He hewed out 
new hamlets in the forests, or settled in the Slavic hamlets already 
at hand and either drove out the Slav, who with his light hook- 
plough practiced only primitive methods of agriculture, or tutored 
him in tilling the soil. 

The salient characteristic of the agrarian policy created here 
by German colonization is the undisputed presence everywhere 
of a manorial system before the advent of the peasant, at least of 
the German peasant ; indeed, it was a threefold landed proprietor- 
ship, that of the reigning prince, of the German cloisters, which 
received as gifts vast tracts of land for colonization with German 
peasants, and of the great vassals constituting the high German 
and native nobility. These three landowners together systemati- 
cally colonized their domain with German peasants, who came, 
for the most part, from Lower Saxony, in consequence of the 
mobilization there of the country population. As already men- 
tioned, they received here, first of all, the best personal and 
proprietary rights : personal freedom and hereditary right of 



234 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

possession in their new farms ; as a rule, the right of ground 
rent ; to some extent, also, hereditary leasehold. In these domains 
of the East, where Germanization was a peaceful process, the 
Slavic population not being driven out, the latter also received, on 
the adoption of German methods of agriculture, the better Ger- 
man right. The fusion of the Slavs with the immigrated German 
population was accomplished in not more than two centuries, as 
is shown by the particularly characteristic examples of Pomerania 
and Riigen. 

German agrarian history in the Northeast begins, therefore, 
immediately with the second form of the agrarian policy of older 
Germany, the pure manorial system. But there exists this impor- 
tant difference, that the large manorial estates in the East were 
from the very beginning geographically closed domains. And 
this territorial character of the manorial system in the region of 
colonization is one source of the later farming estates. We meet 
with the other source in the knights' frequent and extensive 
ownership in villages, about a century after the close of the 
colonization. Among the peasants in the villages we find usually 
one or more knights in possession of little farms, freeholds given 
to them for their services. These freeholds consisted either of 
vacated farms or of settlers' lots, granted in compensation for 
undertaking and conducting the laying out of a new German 
village. The knights are originally simply neighbors of the 
peasants, without rights in them. In the succeeding period of 
impotence and financial distress of the sovereign, one of these 
knights would, however, acquire all the rights in the peasants of 
the village where his property was situated, the rights hitherto 
enjoyed by the reigning prince or another lord. And perhaps he 
would acquire similar rights in one or more neighboring villages : 
from the reigning prince, the entire, even the highest jurisdiction, 
and the public tithes ; from the lord, suzerainty with the right to 
the ground rents and leases. 

In this way the knight's property becomes the center of a 
small manor, likewise geographically closed ; the knight's land- 
ownership, right of judicature, and manor are merged, giving rise 
to estate farming. The manors are broken up into numerous 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 235 

farming estates. This estate farming is, therefore, not an ideal 
complex of rights, titles to rents, and the like, but a real terri- 
tory, in which the landed proprietor is also the highest authority, 
and its tenants his private subjects, who must cultivate his estate 
for him. 

With the completion of this process, which we find in the 
Mittelmark as early as the second half of the fifteenth century, 
there, begins in these regions the decline of the peasantry. They 
are gradually eliminated from the sphere of public jurisdiction 
and completely given over to the lord. The state has no longer 
any interest in them, since it relies on the lord for the taxes. 
The personal legal status of the peasant deteriorates ; he is bound 
to the lord. If he owns a farm within the territory of the lord, 
he is in subjection for his services ; and the period of the Refor- 
mation affects adversely his right of possession and his economic 
condition. In consequence of the changes in the military regime, 
and the rise of mercenary armies, the knight, who cannot become 
ruler of the country, nor, except in rare cases, an urban patrician, 
turns farmer and immediately sets about adding to the land 
properly belonging to the manor by annexing lands hitherto held 
by the peasants. Here begins the strangling of the peasants, and 
the formation of the large farming estates. Since the land, thus 
increased, is still cultivated by the compulsory services of the 
peasants, now numerically fewer, the labor is proportionally 
increased ; and to prevent the peasants from running away, their 
persons are made subject, the subjection being hereditary. 

The government, here much weaker than in the Northwest, at- 
tempted in vain in the sixteenth century to stay this process. After 
the secularization it applied the same methods in its new domains. 
The introduction of the Roman law also contributed to the depre- 
ciation of the personal and property rights of the peasants, although, 
it must be said, not quite to the extent usually assumed. 

It was the Thirty Years' War, more than all else, which ac- 
complished this result. The war wrought here particular devas- 
tation ; and the civilization, being more recent, recovered with 
greater difficulty than in the older Germany. Most of the peasant 
farms were destroyed, and could be restored only with the help 



236 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of the estate. But no more were restored than were necessary 
for working the estate with the utmost utilization of their labor. 
The others were at first kept idle, and then gradually absorbed. 
The peasants thus rehabilitated are, therefore, no longer inde- 
pendent entities, but merely working forces for the estate, and 
they now receive a different and inferior title to the land : in 
general, only leasehold, either hereditary or simply for life, or 
revocable at will ; at all events, no longer a real title, no longer 
a hereditary right to ground rent. Where this existed before, he- 
reditary leasehold becomes the prevailing form ; where the lease- 
hold existed, the nonhereditary leasehold follows. The state of 
subjection is further accentuated, and heavy penalties are laid 
on the escape of the subjects. 

In the following eighteenth century this process of the decline 
of the peasantry in the Northeast continues. The Northern and 
Seven Years' wars had results similar to those of the Thirty 
Years' War ; and after the middle of the century the progress in 
the technique of agriculture, which could not be introduced by the 
exploited, degenerated, and subjected peasants, imparted to the 
lords a mighty impulse to the enlargement of their estates by 
the absorption of entire peasant villages. This inaugurates a new 
and the worst period of the exploitation of peasants on a large 
scale for financial gain. In the aristocratic republics of Mecklen- 
burg and Swedish Pomerania the so-called bondage, the heredi- 
tary subjection, becomes a reality ; the subject is sold without 
estate, like merchandise. 

This last development, however, could take place only in the 
smaller part of the regions east of the Elbe. In the old provinces 
of Prussia it was opportunely blocked by Frederick the Great, in 
the Act of 1749, which was designed to protect the peasants by 
prohibiting their eviction. Here the government had finally be- 
come strong enough to take an interest in the preservation of the 
peasantry, although for military rather than for financial reasons. 
This first successful agrarian measure is of the very greatest 
importance for the subsequent emancipation of the peasants : 
without it there would hardly have been peasants to emancipate. 
But this brings us to the threshold of the third epoch. 



THE EPOCHS OE GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 237 

III 

Before we turn to the third great epoch, dealing with the legis- 
lation of emancipation, we shall attempt to present a comprehen- 
sive picture of the rural policy of the eighteenth century, the 
dissolution of which was the object of the legislation. We are 
here brought face to face with the three forms of historical 
development whose origin we have followed. They exist simul- 
taneously side by side in large and clearly defined regions. We 
have, therefore, a threefold division of this rural policy of the 
eighteenth century : a region of the older manorial system, grad- 
ually disintegrated or changed to the small sovereignty, with per- 
sonal bondage, in the South (more exactly the Southwest) ; a 
region of the newer manorial system, with personal freedom, in 
the Northwest ; and a region of estate farming, with a new form 
of bondage, in the Northeast. Between these there are of course 
transitional regions with mixed forms. We find occasionally in all 
these regions free peasant farms and free peasants, independent 
of all manorial relations, but, as a rule, only with the Ditmarschen, 
the marsh peasants of Bremen, and in East Friesland. With the 
mass of the peasant population, however, the status as to property 
and personal rights in these three chief regions differs greatly. 

In the Northwest these rights are for the most part good. The 
leasehold, which here prevails, has become a hereditary right of 
usufruct, the compulsory services are slight, there being generally 
but few of the larger baronial estates. The persons of the peas- 
ants are, therefore, generally free. Only in Westphalia and 
Hildesheim do we find remnants of the old dependence, in its 
reduced form of tithes. 

In the Northeast, on the other hand, property rights compara- 
ble to the leasehold exist only in the transitional regions, such as 
the Altmark and Lower Silesia ; otherwise the rule is not a right 
of substantial property, but an inferior form, that of leasehold, 
either hereditary or only for life or at the will of the proprietor. 
The return rendered by the peasant for his rights does not consist 
chiefly of rents, as in the Northwest, but for the most part of 
compulsory services. In view of the number and extent of the 



238 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

large farms to be cultivated, the services are so oppressive that it 
may be said they constitute the real end of the existence of the 
leasehold peasant. In consequence of this the entire rural popu- 
lation is unfree, in hereditary subjection, bound to the clod, that 
is, to the estate. Where we meet this hereditary subjection in 
connection with the bad nonhereditary leasehold, we have the 
newer form of personal bondage of the eighteenth century. 

In the South, finally, that is, in Southwestern and Central 
Germany, including the kingdom of Saxony, which, having been 
won back before the great period of colonization, must be con- 
sidered as belonging to this region, the older manorial system is 
fixed, petrified, the personal relationship between lord and peasant 
has disappeared, and the ground rents have become realty charges 
on the peasant farm. In consequence the farm becomes here 
regularly good property, even better than in the Northeast, that is, 
property subject to rent or settlement subject to hereditary ground 
rent. The duties performed for the court baron, who is a different 
person from the lord, are also slight, because baronial estates are 
here even rarer and smaller than in the Northwest ; and these 
duties are compulsory assistance in hunting and in^ building opera- 
tions rather than in cultivating the land. But bondage has existed 
from the Middle Ages, personal dependence on another lord, 
which in the eighteenth century took the form of tithes or rents. 
The rural policy of these parts of Germany, the Southwestern 
German agrarian policy, rests, therefore, on the three distinct insti- 
tutions of the manorial system, judicature, and personal bondage. 

However, this condition does not prevail uniformly in the en- 
tire southern half of the older Western Germany, west of the 
Elbe. A region in the Southeast, extending from the southern 
Black Forest through Algau and Old Bavaria does not belong 
to it. Here we find, as a rule, conditions of settlement inferior to 
ownership or hereditary leasehold ; the manorial system has even 
greater significance, and the compulsory services are more severe ; 
for there are more and larger baronial estates than in the South 
generally. It is possible that here also, as in the Northwest, a 
breaking up of the villications took place ; but of this we have 
as yet too little knowledge: the subject is still to be investigated. 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 239 

This survey of the conditions of the peasantry in the different 
districts shows us very plainly the reciprocal action between the 
development of the manorial system and property, or the peasant's 
right of possession in general. 

Where the manorial system has lost its significance, the best 
right of possession exists : real property or hereditary leasehold. 

Where the manorial system has been modified to the newer 
form, an inferior right of possession exists, yet one that has become 
hereditary and real : the leasehold. 

Where the manorial system has expanded and become accen- 
tuated into estate farming, the worst right of possession exists, in 
general not being even a hereditary right : tenancy at will. 

The interest of the lord in the land and his possession is 
accordingly of wide range. 

Closely joined to this is still another factor, already touched 
upon, which likewise is at the bottom of an important differen- 
tiation of the rural policy in the eighteenth century, namely, a 
division of the peasant population into two large groups, signi- 
fying the existence of the closed farm and of sharply defined 
peasant classes.^ 

The two are connected with each other : clearly defined classes 
(whole, half, and quarter farmers, and cotters, according to the ex- 
tent and character of their holdings) are to be found only where 
the closed peasant farm exists, the farm in a narrower, technical 
sense. By this is meant a peasant farm in which appurtenances 
have been continuously preserved, and which has for a series of 
generations remained unchanged in the hands of its owners. The 
contrary is furnished by the peasant farms which may, by the sale 
of lots, be reduced in size or even wholly broken up : the so-called 
mobile landed property. As a result of the division usually made, 
and the consequent breaking up and ruin of the farms, we find 
here no clearly marked classes of peasants, but only the difference 
between burghers and undertenants, according to the different 
privileges enjoyed in the community. 

This great contrast between the closed peasant farm, which by 
law or custom passes invariably into the hands of one heir, and 
the free divisibility still pervades and differentiates the rural policy 



240 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of the German Empire of to-day, although in a less degree than 
before the legislation of emancipation. 

In the eighteenth century Germany was divided into four 
regions, according to the prevalence of one or the other system : 
a region of the pure closed farm, the territory east of the Elbe ; 
a region in which the closed farm prevailed, the Northwest and 
in the Southeast the Bavarian districts south of the Danube, the 
South of Wurttemberg and Baden ; a region of the prevailing 
free divisibility, Central Germany and Northern Bavaria ; and a 
region of unrestricted free divisibility, on the Rhine, in Northern 
Wurttemberg and the level parts of Baden. 

The survey of the relative occurrence of the two forms shows 
that the difference between the closed and the open farm is also 
related with the difference of settlement in isolated farmsteads 
and villages. The two are, however, not identical ; for while the 
isolated farmstead is usually a closed farm, as in Westphalia, 
the reverse is not true : the occurrence of the closed farm is 
not restricted to isolated homesteads, but is found also in village 
settlements, as in Hanover and the Northeast. 

But the institution of the closed farm is most intimately related 
with the manorial system in its different forms : it is met with, 
generally speaking, in the Northwest, the Northeast, and the 
Southeast, that is, in the domain where the manorial system or 
estate farming was the source of progress and prosperity ; not in 
Southwestern and Central Germany, the domain of the decayed 
manorial system. This is quite natural, for here only we find 
the good property right, making possible a division of the estate. 
Freehold and free divisibility are, therefore, intimately related on 
the one hand ; the manorial system and hereditary right on the 
other. The hereditary right exists essentially for the lord. It is 
originally a product of the manorial system or estate farming, of 
private domination as well as that of the state. 

The question now presents itself, What are the final rea- 
sons for this heterogeneous development in the different parts 
of Germany, for this manifold but always correlated and coordi- 
nate differentiation in the rural policy of the eighteenth century ? 
Why has not the development everywhere advanced to the most 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 241 

modern form of the estate farming of the Northeast? Why has 
the manorial system in the Southwest decayed, without develop- 
ing into the modern form ? And why in the Northwest has it not 
further developed into estate farming ? 

This latter development was, as we have seen, prevented chiefly 
by the early intervention of the supreme power of the state in 
behalf of the peasants. The government was here able to accom- 
plish this because, during one of the periods of complete impotency, 
particularly of financial impotency, it did not, as in the territory of 
colonization, w T aive all its rights in the peasants of the private mano- 
rial estates, a process that did not take place in the East until the 
sixteenth century, after having led in old Germany to the forma- 
tion of the old large manorial estates, fully a thousand years 
earlier. Similarly in the Southeast, in Old Bavaria, the vast pos- 
sessions of the Church, maintained for so long a period, checked 
the importance of the nobility. In the Southwest, on the contrary, 
the noble had no thought of increasing his holdings ; his ambition 
was not to become farmer, but ruler. " Every imperial knight," 
says Gothein, "wished to emulate the prince, every landed noble- 
man wished to emulate the imperial knight, to be legislator and 
ruler. The wretched condition of the state was itself a weapon 
of defence for the peasantry." 

We have, therefore, first of all a political factor, the development 
of the state in question, particularly of its finances. This develop- 
ment made the state more or less dependent on the privileged 
class, the nobles, and forced it more or less to sacrifice to them its 
public rights in the peasants. Then there is the different character 
and the importance of the nobility itself. 

Added to this is the national factor, which doubtless contrib- 
uted to the suppression of the peasantry in the Northeast, a sup- 
pression that is the more marked the less the domain in question 
was colonized by Germans, the more the Slavic population was 
spared and merely Germanized and merged with the German 
immigrants. 

Finally, the different extent to which the Thirty Years' War 
affected the different parts of Germany and the power of their 
resistance against it, which differed in proportion to the age of 



242 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

their civilization, the wealth and density of their population, have 
also exerted a great influence. 

But above all these causes producing their different effects in 
the different regions of Germany, we must name, last but not 
least, a common cause, which to-day is likely to be as much for- 
gotten as forty or fifty years ago it was overestimated : the influ- 
ence of the soil and its configuration as the basis of all economic 
activity. A comparison of the regions showing the three forms 
of rural policy with the physical map of the German Empire 
makes this influence apparent. We perceive an obvious and after 
all natural connection with its physical division into three parts ; 
and that this is in turn responsible for the different traits of our 
people has been clearly shown by that thorough student of our 
country, the late W. H. Riehl. These parts are, first, the low- 
land of Northern Germany ; secondly, mountainous Central Ger- 
many ; thirdly, the plateau of Upper Germany, namely, Lower, 
Central, and Upper Germany. These three regions have wholly 
different natural conditions of economic development : 

The first is predominantly maritime, particularly suited for 
navigation and commerce, with its navigable rivers leading to 
the sea ; but the rivers have little fall, hence scant development 
of industries dependent on water power. The second region, ex- 
tending in the west from the Lake of Constance and northern 
Switzerland to Cologne, in the east to the Erz Mountains, in the 
form of a triangle, has a network of rivers and brooks, many small 
but useful water powers, therefore an early development and un- 
precedented variety of industries. The number of rivers in the 
third region is similar to that of the first ; but the Alpine streams 
are not suitable either for navigation or for industrial purposes : 
" they separate, they do not unite." 

The second domain, mountainous Central Germany, which 
was most influenced and fertilized by Roman civilization, shows 
naturally, therefore, the first higher industrial development and 
formation of town life, of movable property, and of the monetary 
system ; above all else it shows the development of industry in 
the country also, in the villages. Hence here the early decay of 
the rural policy in the form of the old manorial system, the feudal 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 243 

farm, and the villication ; and in consequence of the dense popu- 
lation and the good local market no expansion of the small rural 
enterprise to one of larger proportions producing for a more 
extended market (be it a peasant farm on a large scale, as in the 
Northwest, or a farming estate, as in the Northeast), but rather an 
early beginning of free division, of mobilization, so to speak, of 
the soil. 

The other two regions, on the contrary, remain for a long time 
agrarian, with insignificant industrial development, which is limited 
exclusively to the towns, and causes strict separation between 
town and country. The first region shows, however, at least the 
higher commercial development ; hence here the timely develop- 
ment of the manorial system, which in the third district, in the 
highland of the Southeast, is barely beginning. Both, however, 
adhere to the principle of the closed, indivisible peasant farms. 
The first region, the lowland of Lower Germany, marks the great 
difference between Northwest and Northeast, a difference of a 
thousand years, due partly to a historical development and partly 
also, but less than is usually supposed, to a difference of soil 
and climate. The Northeast, being the youngest region, remains 
agrarian the longest, and consequently experiences what from the 
purely agrarian point of view is the most beneficial change, the 
natural transformation of the newer manorial system, with which 
its German history begins, into estate farming, likewise with 
closed farms. 

Out of this diversity, this threefold or fourfold division of the 
rural system in the eighteenth century, arises a correspondingly 
different problem of the shaping of the emancipatory legislation, 
the freeing of the peasants, and the like, in the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries. 

IV 

There are three causes by which, as early as the eighteenth 
and still more in the nineteenth century, the varying degrees of 
dependence and subjection of the masses of the peasant population 
in Germany were made to appear more and more untenable, and 
which called forth the first attempts for their removal : first, the 
technical progress in the domain of agriculture, together with the 



244 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

physiocratic overrating of the latter ; then, springing from the 
same philosophical root of the law of nature, the ideas of en- 
lightenment, of the rights of man ; finally, in connection with this, 
the development of the modern state, with the demand for like 
political rights for all its citizens. The technical improvements 
could not be utilized in consequence of the more or less bad con- 
dition of the peasant and the constraint of his husbandry, due to 
the mixed lots with forced cultivation of the land and other com- 
pulsory services. The enlightenment, however, took offence chiefly 
at personal unfreedom, bondage ; and this was as incompatible 
with the modern state as the vesting of lords with patrimonial 
police and judicial powers. 

It was, therefore, a threefold liberation of the peasant that was 
demanded by the times : the agricultural, : the personal, and the 
political. The peasant should everywhere become the unrestricted 
and personally free proprietor of his home and field, with full 
rights of citizenship. That was the goal of the emancipatory 
legislation, that the great social question of Germany in the 
eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. 

The entire emancipatory legislation consists of two parts : the 
breaking up of the old system of landlordship and labor by the 
emancipation of the peasants, and the breaking up of the old field 
system through equal distribution in the broadest sense of the 
word. The emancipation of the peasant freed him from every 
master whatsoever, from lord, patrimonial judge, or landed propri- 
etor ; the distribution of land freed him from his own kind, from 
his neighbors, from a master even when a neighbor in the field. 
By far the more important part socially is the emancipation of the 
peasants, which we will examine more closely. It consists, as 
above mentioned, first, in the removal of the agricultural depend- 
ence of the peasant on a master, through the annulment of the 
forced labor owed to the lord, patrimonial judge, or landed propri- 
etor, the conversion of all inferior property rights to property, 
and the discharge of all burdens on the peasant farm ; secondly, 
in the restoration of the personal freedom of the peasant by the 
removal of the older bondage and of the more recent hereditary 
subjection, which the eighteenth century fuses with the former ; 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 245 

thirdly, in the cancellation of judicial and police powers exercised 
by the patrimonial judge and the landed proprietor, and the grant- 
ing of political rights to the peasantry. The last problem was 
everywhere in Germany pretty much the same ; but the solution 
of the first two took a very different turn for the three or four 
groups which we have distinguished in the rural policy of the 
eighteenth century. 

In the domain of the newer manorial system in the Northwest 
the second problem, that of the personal liberation, is almost en- 
tirely absent. We are here concerned chiefly with the restoration 
of unconditioned property out of the hereditary right to leasehold, 
and abolition of rather inconsiderable compulsory services to lord 
and patrimonial judge. Most of the duties of the peasants are 
here realty burdens, resting on the peasant farm. The emancipa- 
tion of the peasants is, therefore, essentially the removal of realty 
burdens, that is, the conversion of all the remaining burdens to 
fixed rents payable in money, and the discharge of the latter by 
paying off to the creditor in one lump sum the principal with 
interest at a fixed rate. 

In the domain of the older manorial system in the South the 
task is principally the elimination of the bondage which has ex- 
isted from the Middle Ages, but which has changed to the form 
of rents ; then the removal of the rather inconsiderable com- 
pulsory services rendered chiefly to the patrimonial judge ; and 
likewise the discharge of the realty burdens where necessary, 
unencumbered property being here frequently met with already. 
It is only in the Southeast that bad and at times not even 
hereditary property rights must be converted into property. 

In the South, primarily, but also in the Northwest, it is an 
antiquated system that is being displaced. In both regions it is 
a question of tithes in money or readily convertible into money ; 
hence it would be easy to pay them off without essentially chang- 
ing the economic status of the lords hitherto entitled to them. 
Consequently, the difficulty was here less economic than political. 
It was not so great in the North as in the South. The Southern 
nobility, mediatized at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
threw special obstacles in the way of reform ; in the North the 



246 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

state had held the nobility in check since the Middle Ages. If in 
the West, especially the Southwest, where it was the rule or at 
least a frequent occurrence that several lords had rights in one 
peasant, the peasant had to be freed from them all, and this com- 
plicated the work of emancipation. Nowhere had the peasant 
come so completely under the unrestricted authority of one lord 
as in the domain of the estate farming. 

In the Northeast, on the contrary, the chief problem is the 
elimination of the oppressive compulsory services and the conver- 
sion of the right of occupation, usually not even hereditary, into 
property. The personal unfreedom, the newly arisen hereditary 
subjection, is here not only obligation to pay all kinds of tithes, 
but an actual wholly personal slavery, consistently developed with 
a view to securing to the lord the entire available working force of 
the subject and of his whole family. He is in reality a piece of 
property of the lord. In addition we here face the problem, in 
contrast with that of the entire West, of abolishing a thoroughly 
modern condition : the unfree system of labor of the modern 
capitalistic management in agriculture on a large scale. 

First of all, it became necessary, if the peasant was to be freed, 
to find an equivalent for his labor. It was labor, and not money, 
that engaged the attention of the beneficiary, whose entire eco- 
nomic existence was imperiled by the removal of this system, 
since he was not a person living on an income, but a producer, 
engaged in agricultural enterprise, who was not willing to stop 
his business immediately. The state was here confronted by an 
unusually difficult agricultural and social problem, consisting of 
the dissolution of the large estates or the providing of a free body 
of workmen in place of the unfree. Politically the task was not 
made easier, owing to the great significance which, in the young 
Prussian state at least, army and bureaucracy had in the eyes of 
the nobility. 

In the Northeast, then, the work of emancipation was doubtless 
the most difficult, in the Northwest the easiest. It did not begin, 
however, as might be supposed, where it was easiest, but where it 
was most urgent, and that was precisely in the Northeast, where, 
up to the eighteenth century, conditions had steadily grown worse. 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 247 

The development of this region was, in consequence, most inde- 
pendent. It was but indirectly influenced from abroad, while the 
West, especially the Southwest, first adopted and applied the new 
ideas from France, and was first and most profoundly shaken by 
the storms of the three French revolutions. 

In spite of these differences two periods may be distinguished 
everywhere in the history of the emancipation of the peasants : 
the pre-Napoleonic and the post-Napoleonic, the eighteenth and 
the nineteenth century, separated by the great Revolution and the 
Napoleonic wars. « 

In the pre-Napoleonic period the enlightened absolute rulers, 
in spite of comprehensive plans, succeeded in making reforms 
only with their own peasants, the peasants of the domain, where 
they were at once sovereign and proprietor, patrimonial judge, or 
lord ; but a real emancipation on an extensive scale took place 
only in the Northeast, in the old provinces of Prussia. Here the 
peasants of the domain were gradually made free property owners 
without obligatory services, not by the elimination of the large 
estates, as in Austria in the reign of Maria Theresa, but in con- 
sequence of the immediate financial assistance rendered by the 
Royal Treasury to the leaseholders of these large farms for the 
purchase of the necessary draught animals and of free labor. 
This is the great accomplishment which the old state of Prussia 
succeeded in making, at least in its essential features, before her 
deepest humiliation in the year 1806. 

Again, in the post-Napoleonic period, it is the old Prussia 
which first undertook, by the famous Stein-Hardenberg legislation, 
the difficult task of personal as well as economic emancipation of 
the peasants, as a means to their spiritual regeneration. The 
kingdom wished, in the words of Hardenberg's memorial of 1 807, 
" to adopt the aims of the Revolution while preserving morality 
and religion, and to realize democratic principles in a monarchical 
government." The abolition of hereditary subjection by the Edict 
of 1807, and the Regulation of Relations between Proprietor 
and Peasant (that is, the elimination of compulsory services and 
the transformation of conditional property rights to property) by 
the Edict of 181 1 and the Declaration of 18 16,. made at least the 



248 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

larger leasehold peasants that were susceptible of improvement 
free landowners, although they came into possession of only two 
thirds, or in some cases of one half of the land formerly tilled by 
them : the one third, or the other half, as the case might be, 
became the free property of the owners of the estates as indem- 
nification. The problem, however, of providing free hired labor 
in place of the unfree compulsory labor for the large estates that 
continued to exist was solved by the Declaration of 1816 exclu- 
sively in the interest of the landed proprietors, by exempting 
the small peasants, such as the cotters, whc* were not capable of 
improvement, from this regulation as well as from that concern- 
ing the protection of the peasants. They could consequently be 
oppressed by the proprietors and converted into day laborers. All 
this is too well known, particularly since the great work of Knapp, 
to need here more than passing notice. It was left to the year 
1848 to bring the emancipatory legislation to a conclusion, to 
complete the regulation, so far as possible, and to accomplish the 
cancellation of the realty burdens of those peasants, a minority, 
who enjoyed superior rights to property, and of the regulated 
peasants settled on crownland. 

In contrast with this, the emancipation of private peasants was 
already accomplished in the most important region of the North- 
west, in Hanover, in the thirties. At first it amounted to- mere 
freedom from the private manorial system, while the public right 
of the state and the particular private right of the peasants, in- 
cluding inheritance, remained in force. The former was not abol- 
ished by the Prussian laws until in the seventies ; the latter was 
replaced by the optional right of inheritance in the law relating 
to peasant farms. 

In the South (and in Central Germany), however, only personal 
emancipation resulted at first from the new constitutions, enacted 
as a part of the general political development. The economic 
emancipation, on the contrary, was here first set in motion by the 
Revolution of July, and was achieved, at least in its main features, 
by the year 1848. The later this process took place, the more 
thorough and advantageous it was for the peasant. Capitalization 
of their realty burdens was lower than in the Northwest and the 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 249 

Northeast, and the state aided in the discharge of these burdens 
without exacting indemnity in land. 

Where emancipation from patrimonial authority was obtained 
at all, it did not as a rule come earlier than the year 1848 ; but 
it was not enacted everywhere. 

It is not possible to describe here further the technical meas- 
ures enacted in connection with the emancipation of the peasants. 
These measures were aimed at the removal of the entailed field 
system of the Middle Ages and the establishment of the rule of 
general distribution of land in the broadest sense, that is, the 
abolition of patrimonial jurisdiction, and the gathering together or 
the redistribution of landed property. Nor is it possible to show 
how these measures assumed different forms in the different 
great domains in consequence of the varying rural policy and the 
tripartite physical division. 



The net results of the entire work of emancipation, as we see it 
in the second half of the nineteenth century, are, in the main, 
everywhere the same ; and the effect, particularly where compre- 
hensive technical reforms were enacted together with those of a 
legal and economic nature, has everywhere been an extraordinary 
growth of German agriculture. But the fundamental character of 
the rural policy of Germany at the end of the eighteenth century 
has not been altered by the emancipatory legislation : the agrarian 
dualism then in existence, the great contrast between the Germany 
east of the Elbe and the Germany, west of the Elbe, has not been 
softened, but, on the contrary, considerably intensified. For in 
the Northwest a few of the sparse large farms have been broken 
up ; in the Northeast nowhere, if we leave out of account the 
parts of Schleswig-Holstein belonging to it. Here, as a direct 
consequence of the emancipation of the peasants, the number of 
positions for peasants has been reduced, and the peasant land 
even further diminished. In the old provinces of Prussia, the 
principal region of the Northeast, the liberation of the peasants 
has not only given new impetus to the formation, out of the 
peasant land, of large estates characteristic of the Northeast, but 



250 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

positively encouraged and accelerated it, in spite of the temporary 
check received through the protection given the peasants by 
Frederick the Great. This has been due partly to the repeal of 
the law enacted for the protection of the peasants, so far as it 
affected that part of them excluded in 1816 from its operation, 
and partly to the rule of indemnity in land. In solving the peasant 
problem of that time, therefore, it has created simultaneously the 
question of rural labor. 

Many of the regulated farmsteads, which could not in after 
times maintain themselves, were bought up by the great estates. 
Moreover, the restoration of free transfer of land in Prussia was 
by no means complete. It halted before the estates in tail and 
the rights of creditors of mortgaged farms. Encroachment on the 
large estate was, therefore, rendered impossible, although de- 
manded by the general agricultural development and the growth 
of the population. The license of parceling out the land was in 
reality available only for the peasant property, which had, up to 
the time of the legislation concerning estates held in perpetuity 
with fixed rentals, been steadily reduced in the Northeast by 
selling the land undivided or by parceling it out to small farmers. 

On the other hand, the introduction of the right of free divisi- 
bility and of the Roman common law of heredity, bestowing equal 
rights on all children, together with the right of encumbrance, has 
led, in nearly all the branches of rural life, to an ever increasing 
burdening of the peasantry with the hereditary indebtedness re- 
sulting from the division of the land. It has not brought about an 
actual division of the land, nor an indebtedness as high as that 
prevailing in the case of the large estates ; but this indebtedness 
rises, at least in the Northeast, to alarming proportions. 

The conviction of the importance of a numerous thriving 
peasantry for the state and for political economy is stronger to- 
day than at the time of the emancipation. The peasants are im- 
portant not only from the financial, military, and social point of 
view, but from the physical, in their relation to public health and 
the renewal of the urban population. The present agrarian crisis 
has shown that the peasant industry has greater power of resistance 
than the large enterprise, or that it is at least able to compete 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 251 

with it ; while the growth of the population and the general eco- 
nomic progress demand a reduction in the size and an increase 
in the number of agricultural industries. 

Owing to this a reaction has recently set in against the agra- 
rian legislation of the third epoch, a legislation accomplishing 
nothing but freedom and disintegration. We are standing at the 
beginning of a new era of agrarian policy, which, following in the 
wake of the emancipatory legislation, faces the twofold task of 
what the latter has overdone and what it has failed to do : main- 
tenance, in its present status, of the freed peasantry ; and im- 
provement of it where the described historical process before the 
emancipation, and the emancipation itself, have decimated it so 
extensively, in the parts of the empire east of the Elbe. And 
since maintenance is so much easier than restoration, the first 
task of modern agrarian policy is the maintaining of the peasantry 
where it is endangered, first of all, therefore, but by no means 
solely, in the Northeast ; and the most effective means for pre- 
venting an increase of debt in the way of hereditary succession 
is the return to a certain entail in the interest of public policy, 
the introduction of the intestate right of inheritance for all those 
regions in which the closed farm, in spite of the emancipatory 
legislation, has remained the rule, because the foundations of free 
divisibility of the Southwest, the intensive industrial development 
in the country, are absent. 

An additional and no less important task of the German and 
particularly of the Prussian agrarian policy of the present, affect- 
ing the entire economic life of the German Empire, will be the 
increase of the peasantry in the Northeast, on a large scale, to be 
accomplished by the state itself through a colonization from within, 
a "Westernizing of the Northeast," as Knapp calls it. But the 
described historical course of development enables us to deter- 
mine to what limits this new colonization of the Northeast must 
be confined to be organic and capable of living. If the three 
forms of rural policy of the Southwest, the Northwest, and the 
Northeast appear to us like so many historical epochs and stages 
of development, following one another successively, as conditioned 
by the topography of the different regions, it is clear that the aim 



252 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of this inner colonization can only be the application of the rural 
system of the Northwest to that of the Northeast, beginning with 
the transitional domains, such as the Altmark or the province 
of Saxony : the establishment, therefore, of larger closed peasant 
farms intermingled with large estates, but not of small peasant 
farms with free divisibility as in the Southwest. The Western- 
izing can therefore be only a Northwesternizing, never a South- 
westernizing. For only historical differences, such as exist between 
the Northwest and the Northeast, can be permanently bridged 
over by artificial governmental measures, but not natural differ- 
ences, like that between the lowland of Northern Germany and 
the mountainous region of Central Germany. Although in the 
modern political economy industrial development has, in conse- 
quence of the improvement in means of communication and in 
manufactures, become more independent of the configuration of 
the land, and is frequently attracted by commercial centers, this 
deep-seated difference can never be wholly obliterated. The most 
recent development, with the increasing importance of electricity, 
takes industry back again to the natural water powers. 

The significance of this domestic colonization is great enough 
for the entire political economy of the German Empire. It means, 
on the one hand, the only possible cure for the present agrarian 
crisis, by means of compulsory liquidation of the large farming 
estates which are most in debt ; on the other hand, a solution of 
the question of rural labor, by keeping in the country the work- 
ingmen who now emigrate, and finally an outlet for the surplus 
population of the Southwest, and thus the elimination of the 
threatening excessive division of landed property. Already na- 
tives of Baden and Wiirttemberg have found a new home in the 
distant Northeast. It is a particularly fascinating problem of the 
domestic colonization, that human material of the Southwest is to 
give to the Northeast the rural system of the Northwest. If we 
thus succeed in stopping the flight from the country to the city, 
and from the East to the West, there will result a retardation if 
not a suspension of the growth of the large cities and of the de- 
velopment to the industrial state, the rapid pace of which has in 



THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 253 

these later days begun to fill the farther-sighted political econo- 
mists with increasing apprehension. This is the full meaning of 
the domestic colonization, this the great task of the new epoch 
of agrarian policy, the threshold of which we have already crossed. 
The knowledge of the past is a source of counsel and instruc- 
tion for the present, of comfort and hope for the future. 



B. AMERICAN 

THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 

By Albert Bushnell Hart 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. I, pp. 169-251, January, 1887) 

JANUARY 25, 1785, General George Washington wrote a let- 
ter in which occurs the following passage : " There being no 
settlement or appropriations (of land) (except the reservation in 
favor of the Virginia line of the army), to my knowledge, in all the 
country northwest of the Ohio." In 1883, according to an official 
publication of the Public Land Commission, there were " purely 
arable lands remaining in the West (estimated), five million acres,'' 
and " the movement westward in search of free government lands 
must soon cease." No more timely and interesting service could 
be performed than to consider the probable effect of the impend- 
ing change. For a century our political, economic, and social 
relations have been sensibly affected by the nearness, accessibility, 
and cheapness of government land. The population of the coun- 
try has at last overtaken our unsettled domain. Henceforth our 
conditions must be more like those of old and crowded countries. 
The nation has had, enjoyed, and spent a part of its heritage, 
and can never recover it. 

To speculate upon the future is, however, more difficult and 
less profitable than to consider the mistakes of the past. The 
present article is an attempt to show how it comes about that the 
arable lands of the United States government are on the verge 
of exhaustion. Three questions will be considered in turn, — the 
acquisition of the lands, their disposition, and the policy of the 
government. 

. . . The government of the United States acquired territory 
in three different aspects. As a general government; it exercises 

254 



THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 255 

jurisdiction over all the area included within the boundaries of the 
United States ; as a government, it controls, or provides for the 
control of, that part of the national territory not organized into 
states ; as a landholder, it owns large tracts of lands within both 
states and territories. . . . The Congress of the United States 
went into the business of governing the nation March 1, 1781, 
with 819,815 square miles of territory; and this area was acknowl- 
edged to belong to the United States by the treaty of 1783. The 
first increase of territory came in 1803. The Interior Depart- 
ment has committed itself, in its lands and census publications, to 
the statement that the Louisiana purchase of that year included 
Oregon. It is more in accordance with the historic truth to say 
that our title to Oregon south of the Columbia dates from the 
Lewis and Clarke expedition of 1805. The United States, there- 
fore, secured 877,268 square miles in 1803, and 225,948 square 
miles in 1805. In 18 12, acts of Congress extended our jurisdic- 
tion over about 9740 square miles, claimed by Spain, in west 
Florida. The Florida purchase of 18 19 added 54,240 square 
miles. Texas brought us 262,290 square miles in 1845. Here, 
again, the government publications conflict with history. New 
Mexico was never a part of Texas, and our title to that region 
rests upon the same basis as that to California : it was a part of 
the 58,880 square miles north of the Columbia acknowledged by 
England. In 1853 we bought 47,330 square miles of Mexico. 
Finally, in 1867, Russia ceded to us Alaska, with 3,501,509 
square miles. To speak in round numbers, the original' area of 
the United States was doubled by the Louisiana cession ; almost 
as much was added out of Mexican territory ; and Oregon and 
Alaska together make up the fourth quarter of the present area. 

The area embraced in the territories has varied almost from 
year to year. Between the years 1784 and 1802, cessions by the 
states had given to the United States 405,482 square miles ; but, 
besides two little tracts ceded by the United States to Pennsyl- 
vania and Georgia, the creation of new states, beginning with 
Tennessee in 1796, withdrew large regions from the territorial 
status. Each annexation increased the territories for the time 
being ; each admission of a state again reduced it. At present 



256 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the territories cover 1,466,257 square miles, and the states 
2,040,252. Since 1820 the area of the states taken together has 
never been very far from one-half of the total area of the whole 
United States. 

That part of the land within our boundaries which belongs 
to the nation has by the Land Office been named the public 
domain. The area is a ratio having two variables : at intervals 
it is increased by cessions or annexations ; every year since 1799 
it has been diminished by sale or gift. At the beginning of the 
existence of the Confederation, in 1781, the government did not 
control or own a single acre of land. Every part of the United 
States was claimed by some state, and there were regions covered 
by two or even three claims. With all its defects and its imbe- 
cility, the Confederation did one great service to the nation and 
to posterity : it succeeded in prevailing upon a number of the 
states to waive their claims in behalf of the general government. 
March 1, 1784, the cession of Virginia gave to the United States 
undisputed title to a large part of the region north of the Ohio 
River. The previous cession of New York and the later cessions 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut, in 1785 and 1786, completed 
the title to the vast tract now occupied by six populous states. 
In the South the process was slower. South Carolina ceded her 
claim in 1787, North Carolina in 1790. It was not till 1802 
that Georgia released her hold upon the region now taken up by 
the states of Alabama and Mississippi. 

An inspection of Table 1 1 will show that the United States 
received title to less land than was included in the cessions. 
In every case there were reservations. Thus Connecticut kept 
for herself the Western Reserve. Virginia liberally provided a 
bounty tract for her Revolutionary soldiers, north of the Ohio 
River. North Carolina, with a great flourish of trumpets, yielded 
the region now included within the state of Tennessee ; but it 
was found later that the whole region was covered by state 
land warrants, so that the United States never held an acre. In 
addition to the reservations for the benefit of states and their 

1 Table will be found in the original article in the Quarterly Journal of 
Economics, Vol. I, pp. 169-251, January, '1887. 



THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 257 

proteges, every tract which has come to the government has been 
reduced by the claims of previous residents. The policy of the 
government has been to leave undisturbed actual occupants of 
small estates and to construe liberally the grants of previous 
governments. The Indian occupancy has always been recognized 
as something which must be purchased before the United States 
gained full title. Texas retained the whole body of public lands 
within her limits. With these two exceptions, the United States 
has since 1802 had to consider only private claims. As more 
than one-half of the whole territory (1,865,457 out of 3,501,509 
square miles) has once been Spanish, the land titles under the 
grants and laws of Spain have been a troublesome thorn in 
the flesh of successive land commissioners. No exact record 
appears of the precise quantities of land confirmed to claimants 
in California, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Florida, but up- 
wards of fifty thousand square miles have doubtless never 
entered the public domain. The general policy of the govern- 
ment is to require a claimant to prove his title. Great hardship 
has often ensued, and many grants are still unconfirmed by the 
United States. 

If the government had never parted with any of the lands to 
which it had undoubted title, we should now have a patrimony of 
2,708,388 square miles. This area is but little less than that of 
the whole United States, excluding Alaska. The fourth column 
of Table 1 1 shows the amount of land in possession of the United 
States from year to year. It will be noticed that since 1803 we 
have had more land than exclusive territory. A very considerable 
part of the public domain lies therefore within the limits of 
states. Another significant fact, shown by the same table, 1 is the 
rapid melting away of the area gained by each cession since 
1805. We had less land in 1846 than before the Florida and 
final Oregon annexations ; the area of Alaska barely made good 
the acreage lost since 1848, and a new Texas would not much 
more than restore the public lands parted with since 1867. Let 
us look more closely into the process by which the United States 
has divested itself of more than a million square miles. 

1 See footnote on page 256. 



258 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

. . . The history of the public lands happens to fall into five tolera- 
bly distinct periods, each of about twenty years. From 1784 to 1801 
the policy of the government was to sell lands in large quantities 
by special contract ; the result was an average sale of less than one 
hundred thousand acres yearly. In 1800 was inaugurated a new 
system of sales, in small lots, on credit ; about eighteen millions 
of acres were thus taken, but more than two and a half millions 
subsequently reverted to the government under relief acts. In the 
middle of 1820 began a system of sales for cash, in lots to suit 
purchasers. Seventy-six million acres were sold in twenty years ; 
but the half of this quantity went in the two years preceding the 
panic of 1837. After that revulsion the pre-emption system was 
adopted, by which the most desirable lands were reserved for 
actual settlers, at a low price. Except in the years 185 6- 1857 
the sales were steady and kept pace with the growth of the 
West. The homestead system carried the principle of land for 
the landless still further, and cut down cash sales to an average of 
a million acres a year. Since 1880, pre-emptions have been re- 
sorted to again, in many cases for fraudulent purposes. At pres- 
ent lands are classified by the Land Office as agricultural, saline, 
town site, mineral, coal, stone and timber, and desert lands. 
From 1854 to 1862 there was a further class of "graduated 
lands." These were tracts which had long remained unsold, and 
were offered to abutters at very low prices. The minimum price 
for ordinary lands has for many years been $1.25 per acre. Tim- 
ber lands and lands reserved from railroad land-grants are sold at 
the "double minimum" of $2.50 an acre; mineral lands are val- 
ued at $2.50 and $5 an acre ; coal lands, at $10 and $20 an acre. 

It would seem, therefore, as though the sale of a hundred and 
ninety-two million acres must have brought in a handsome sum 
to the government. As long ago as 1787 Thomas Jefferson 
wrote : " I am very much pleased that our Western lands sell so 
successfully. I turn to this precious resource as that which will, 
in every event, liberate us from our domestic debt, and perhaps, 
too, from our foreign one." It is true that the proceeds of the 
public lands did eventually wipe out the last vestiges of the debt 
which had existed in 1787. It is true that the lands had, up to 



THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 259 

June 30, 1883, brought into the Treasury of the United States 
the smart amount of two hundred and thirty-three million dollars. 
It is also true that, except for the period from 1830 to 1840, the 
lands have been a drain upon, and not a resource of, our finances. 
At the end of the financial year 188 2- 1883, the government was 
out of pocket, so far as cash outlay and receipts are measures of 
the value of the lands, in the sum of $126,428,484.89. The first 
great item of expense is the extinguishment of the Indian title 
to ownership. Since 1781 the United States government has 
recognized the right of occupancy, but has asserted its sole pre- 
rogative to acquire Indian lands. First and last, up to the end 
of the fiscal year 188 2-1 88 3, it had paid two hundred and nine 
millions of dollars for the interest of the Indian in his lands. 
There have been grave acts of injustice in the manner of negotia- 
tion and of payment, but no inferior race ever received more con- 
sideration at the hands of the treaty-making power. The Indians 
are still in possession of reservations comprising some of the 
most favored lands in the West and embracing more than a 
hundred and fifty million acres of land. A second source of ex- 
pense has been the purchase-money paid for all the annexations 
since 1802, except that of Oregon. The items taken together 
make an outlay of upwards of eighty-eight millions. Surveys and 
expenses of disposition add fifty-five millions. If a strict account 
were to be made up, there should be added a proportion of the 
general expenses of maintaining the government, and the whole 
cost of the Mexican War. 

Unsatisfactory as is the financial result of our public-land 
policy, we must reflect that the sales account for but little more 
than a fourth part of the total disposition. Perhaps we shall find 
the remainder so used as to give some indirect benefit which 
cannot be reckoned in dollars and cents. ... In the first four 
decades two sorts of grants are apparent. In 1796, and later, 
provision was made for the fulfillment of long-standing promises 
to the Revolutionary troops and to the Canadian refugees who 
had taken sides with the patriots. At the same time Congress 
made gifts of small tracts of land to individuals who had per- 
formed special services to the republic. Thus Lafayette received 



260 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a township of land in 1824 ; and in 1843 a square mile was 
voted to one Lowe for ■ ' his gallantry and peril in the rescue of 
an American brig from the hands of pirates." A very few grants 
were made to educational and charitable institutions. Thus Jef- 
ferson College, Mississippi, and the deaf and dumb asylums of 
Kentucky and Connecticut were each endowed with a township. 
Congress has always shown a singular moderation in making 
special grants, perhaps because its general gifts were so magnifi- 
cent. Of the ten million acres given away, down to 1840, the 
greater part was in reward for services in the Revolutionary War 
and the War of 18 12. For services in the Mexican War, the 
government appropriated about sixty millions of acres. Another 
form of gift is the so-called "donations." From 1842 to 1854, 
acts were passed granting quarter sections of land to actual 
settlers who would reside on dangerous frontiers. About three 
millions of acres have been claimed under these conditions. 
The homestead acts of 1862 introduced a new principle into the 
public-land system : it provided not only for the reservation of 
land for actual settlers, but it proposed to give the land to all 
heads of families, citizens of the United States or intending to 
become such. The effect of the act has been threefold. Under 
its provisions and those of the similar timber-culture act of 1873, 
immigration has been stimulated, the revenue from the lands has 
been comparatively little, and ninety millions of acres have passed 
from the public domain into private hands. In some respects the 
rapid settlement of the West, which has been greatly favored by 
the generous policy of the government, has undoubtedly conduced 
to the welfare of the country, and has made possible our elaborate 
systems of transportation and distribution on a large scale. It is, 
nevertheless, a question whether the present generation, as well 
as posterity, might not have been equally prosperous if the gov- 
ernment had made the conditions of acquirement more rigorous. 
To ascribe the depletion of our reserves of land to the bounty 
and homestead acts is unjust : the United States has given to the 
states almost as much as to individuals. Most of the original six- 
teen states (including Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee) were 
in possession of unoccupied lands in 1802, The new states, as 



THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 261 

they have been admitted, have received large gifts of three kinds. 
To most of them have been granted from one to six townships of 
saline lands, — an aggregate of half a million acres. For all ad- 
mitted to the Union previous to 1850, have been reserved one 
thirty-sixth of the public domain within their limits, for school 
purposes. The fortunate states which have come in since 1850 
receive an eighteenth ; and a like amount is reserved in each of 
the territories, except the Indian Territory and Alaska. The 
total thus set aside is about sixty-eight million acres. For each 
of the new states and territories has also been reserved a tract 
of from two to four townships for a university, — a total of more 
than a million. In 1862 Congress granted to each state in the 
Union lands proportioned to its representation in Congress, for 
an agricultural college. Nearly ten million acres were thus appro- 
priated. It is at least doubtful whether a system of endowed 
public schools is desirable. Many of the states have squandered, 
lost, or misused the lands acquired for educational purposes. 
In others the people decline to tax themselves for school pur- 
poses, and rely wholly on the fund. But it is even worse with 
other forms of grants to states. In 1841, a time of reckless dis- 
position of the lands, a grant of five hundred thousand acres was 
made to seventeen of the states, for internal improvements. The 
largest single gift made to the states at one time was included in 
the swamp land grants of 1849 an d subsequent years. All the 
V swamp and overflowed lands " within the limits of any state 
were granted to that state. It was expected that the sale of a part 
would pay the expense of reclaiming the whole. It does not ap- 
pear that any great improvements have been made by the states ; 
and the United States is now spending large sums in building 
levees, to protect regions presented to the states in 1850. 

Throughout the history of the country there has prevailed 
the double error that a gift of land cost the government nothing 
and was of very great value to the recipient. Upon .the land 
that is of any worth the United States has spent money for sur- 
veys and administration ; and the states and other grantees have 
found it hard to turn the gifts into money. A great part of the 
educational grants have realized not more than a dollar an acre. 



262 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

It would in many respects be preferable for the government to 
appropriate the proceeds of the lands rather than to give the dis- 
posal of the soil to the states. A distribution act was passed in 
1 84 1, by which the net amount received for public lands was to 
be paid to the states ; but it was repealed so speedily that only 
about seven hundred thousand dollars were thus distributed. A 
much larger sum has accumulated, and has been paid to the 
states under the "two-, three-, and five-per-cent funds." By 
agreement with each state as it has entered the Union the 
United States consents to pay over a proportion of the net pro- 
ceeds of the lands within that state. More than seven million 
dollars have been allowed under this provision. The deduction 
is not strictly a gift, since the states in return bind themselves 
not to tax public land till it has been five years in the hands of 
a private owner. 

In theory the lands appropriated for internal improvements 
of various kinds have also been sacrificed, in order to make the 
remainder more valuable. The Ohio five-per-cent fund in 1802 
was intended to be applied to the construction of the Cumberland 
road, which was to be the great avenue for purchasers and settlers 
from the Atlantic coast. This was the beginning of the system of 
internal improvement at the expense of the nation ; but in prac- 
tice Congress built the road out of general funds. It was not till 
1827, four years after the first river and harbor bill, that direct 
grants of lands were made in aid of internal improvements. 
The new and momentous policy began with grants for canals. 
Between 1827 and 1850 about three million acres had been 
appropriated to this purpose, principally to secure the completion 
of the system connecting the Lakes with the Ohio and Mississippi. 
The jealousy caused by the action of Congress brought about 
the comprehensive grant of five hundred thousand acres to each 
""public-land state," to which we have already referred. But the 
most familiar forms of grants for internal improvements date 
from 1850. By that year the railroad system had been extended 
so far west as to penetrate large tracts of unsold lands. Congress 
aided the extension of the system by assigning to the states of 
Illinois, Alabama, and Mississippi nearly four million acres, to 



THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 263 

be used toward the construction of the Illinois Central and the 
Mobile and Ohio lines, reaching from Chicago to the Gulf. Be- 
tween 1850 and 1872 about eighty similar land-grants were made. 
The principal lines of communication in Minnesota and Iowa, 
and important roads in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, 
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida were subsidized. 
In 1862 a new problem presented itself. It became a political 
necessity to lay a line of railroad across the continent. Between 
Iowa and California there were no states to which the grant 
could pass. Congress, therefore, promised a subsidy to corpora- 
tions which undertook to build the road. 

In the ten years following, some twenty-three similar grants 
were made, in almost all cases for roads running east and west, 
and intended to form links in transcontinental lines. To satisfy 
the terms of the acts, about one hundred and fifty-five millions of 
acres would be necessary. Several companies never built their 
roads, and earned no grant ; others completed the work after the 
prescribed time. In a few cases Congress has formally declared 
the grant void, and has restored the land to the public domain. 
In 1883 nearly the whole area was at least withdrawn from settle- 
ment, pending a legal return to the full control of the government ; 
but only forty-seven millions of acres had been formally patented 
to the states and companies. A few grants for canals and for 
wagon roads, between the years 1863 and 1872, make up the 
three remaining millions of the grand total promised by the gov- 
ernment, — a total of a hundred and sixty-one millions of acres. 

To express the disposition of the public lands in familiar terms, 
the United States has parted with a tract equal to its whole area 
east of the Mississippi River, added to the states of Missouri, 
Iowa, and Minnesota (west of the river). The acreage sold is a 
little more than the combined areas of the New England and 
Middle States, with Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The coast 
states from Delaware to Florida (including Maryland) represent 
the area of gifts to individuals. The remainder of the South, east 
of the Mississippi, closely approximates to the area of grants to 
states. The remainder of the Northwest, with Missouri, Iowa, 
and Minnesota, may stand for the internal improvement grants. 



264 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Yet so vast is the area of the country that the government 
might repeat its sales and gratuities, acre for acre, without ex- 
hausting its reserves of land in the West alone. In spite of the 
fact that the states had in the beginning, or have retained, five 
hundred million acres, and that the United States has parted with 
six hundred and eighty million acres, the public domain still com- 
prises upwards of a thousand million acres. The real significance 
of the present alarm about the disappearance of the public lands, 
lies in the fact that the greater part of the unsold lands are either 
reserved for the Indians or are unfit for ordinary tillage. Upon 
the best vacant lands, — amounting to about a hundred and fifty 
millions of acres, — the Indians are now seated. The area can be 
reduced by judicious and costly treaties ; but it amounts only to 
about five hundred acres per head, and if the occupants should 
take up land in severalty, they could not be dispossessed without 
such injustice as would rouse the nation. Experts in the Land 
Office assure us that, making all deductions and allowances, the 
remaining lands are worth upwards of a thousand millions of dol- 
lars. There is no evidence in the past policy of the government 
for believing that we shall actually net one-tenth of that amount. 
The greater part of the region is officially classified as " Desert 
Lands," and is for sale in tracts of six hundred and forty acres, 
at a dollar and a quarter an acre. Nothing but the temporary in- 
crease of pre-emption enables the Land Office at present to pay 
its running expenses out of income. The golden time is past ; 
our agricultural land is gone ; our timber lands are fast going ; 
our coal and mineral lands will be snapped up as fast as they 
prove valuable. There is no great national reserve left in the 
public lands, unless there should be a change of policy. Should 
disaster overtake us, we must depend, like other nations, on the 
wealth of the people, and not on that of the government. 

It is, of course, true that the lands are still in existence, and 
have been made many times more valuable by the labor of the 
occupants. It is further true that large quantities of land are for 
sale by the railroads and other grantees. There is no immediate 
danger of a land famine. There is abundant cause for criti- 
cism of the system adopted by the United States, but it should 



THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 265 

rightfully be directed rather against the manner in which the laws 
have worked than against their purpose. Since 1841 the lands 
have nominally been reserved for actual settlers ; but practice has 
shown grave defects in the settlement laws, — defects which Con- 
gress has no will to remedy. No man can legally pre-empt land 
or take up a homestead more than once. The privilege is very 
difficult to guard, and perjury and fraud are alarmingly frequent. 
No man can legally acquire more than eleven hundred and twenty 
acres of land, in the West, from the government ; a hundred and 
sixty acres each as a pre-emption, as a homestead, and as a tree 
claim, and a section as a desert-land claim. Actually, single indi- 
viduals and companies own large estates which a few years ago 
were in the hands of the government. 

The accumulation of the large tracts is often brought about by 
fraud, but much oftener through the mistaken generosity of the 
government or through defective land laws. It is not always 
necessary to hire men fraudulently to take up land for the com- 
pany. In Texas the state has sold its lands in its own way, 
often in large blocks. The school-lands and the scrip for bounty 
warrants have legally been used for locating wide-extending 
estates. The railroad lands, although not in compact tracts, can 
be used as a nucleus for a large accumulation : and, in a country 
where land is cheap and money dear, the patient, long-headed 
capitalist can buy up valuable claims in a legitimate manner. The 
chief source of the present trouble in the West lies in the fact 
that the government never recognized that grazing land must be 
sold and occupied under different conditions from ordinary arable 
lands. The first comers have been allowed to take up the water- 
fronts. Any comprehensive system of irrigation of large areas for 
the benefit of future land-seekers has thus been forever prevented. 
The possessor of the rivers and water-holes has gained control of the 
country behind his claim. In such a contest the largest and rich- 
est concerns have a great advantage. There was a time when the 
government might have laid out, for sale or lease, large tracts of 
grazing lands, each with a sufficient water-front. It is now too late. 

The fundamental criticism upon our public-land policy is not 
that we have sold our lands cheap, not that we have freely given 



266 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

them away, but that the gifts have in too many cases inured to 
the benefit of those whom the government meant to ignore. 
The land-grabber is, in most cases, simply taking advantage 
of the chances which a defective system has cast in the way of 
shrewd and forehanded or unscrupulous men. The difficulty is 
certainly not in the Land Office, which, in the midst of perplex- 
ing complications, has striven hard to protect our lands. The 
fault lies at the door of the Congress of the United States, which 
has the power, but not the will, to correct notorious defects in 
our system. Still further back, the fault is with the free citizens 
of the republic, who have been too busy to insist that there 
should be a comprehensive land policy, providing for the equitable 
disposition of all classes of the public lands. 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 

By M. B. Hammond 

(From " The Cotton Industry," chap, hi, pp. 67-226, publications of the 
American Economic Association, n.s., Vol. I, No. 1, 1897) 

IMPORTANT as were the changes in spinning and weaving 
cotton brought about by the introduction of machinery and the 
establishment of the factory system, and great as was the influence 
of the saw-gin on the development of the cotton industry, these dis- 
coveries and appliances in the mechanical arts do not suffice in 
themselves to explain the remarkable expansion of this industry 
during the succeeding years. Back of the machine production, 
although greatly stimulated thereby, lay the demand for cotton 
goods originating in the fashionable tastes of the higher classes, 
but continuing in popularity when increased supplies of raw 
material and cheaper modes of production had brought these 
fashionable fabrics within the reach of the humbler members of 
society. So, behind the invention of the saw-gin lay the forces 
which really determined the supply side of the question. These 
forces were the energy of the Southern people, the suitability of 
their climate for cotton production, and most important of all, 
the wide area within the Southern States on which cotton could 
be successfully grown. The failure of the saw-gin to come into 
general or even extensive use in India and the other cotton- 
producing countries, shows that something more than its inven- 
tion is necessary to explain the wonderful development of the 
American cotton culture and trade during the succeeding century. 
The invention of the saw-gin was only the unlocking of the door 
of a great storehouse of cotton, so that all the world might draw 
from its seemingly unlimited stock the material for its clothing. 

In 1793, when the invention of the saw-gin had removed the 
last obstacle to the spread of cotton culture throughout the South, 

267 



268 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the cultivation of this plant was still confined almost entirely to 
the tide-water region of the states of Virginia, Maryland, Georgia 
and the Carolinas. Even within this region its culture was by no 
means general. The greatest production came from the southern 
portion, especially from Georgia, where the sea-island or long- 
staple variety had been introduced seven years before. But, 
although it excelled all other varieties as a marketable commodity, 
the sea-island cotton was subject to narrow geographical limitations, 
and all efforts to produce it at a distance from the seacoast proved 
futile. The upland planters, therefore, found themselves restricted 
to the cultivation of the green-seed cotton, a short-staple variety, 
but little known to Southern planters previous to the Revolution. 
This variety of cotton seems to be the result of a crossing of the 
Herbaceum, of Eastern origin, with the Hirsutum, probably of 
Western origin. Experiments made with its cultivation had already 
shown it to have advantages over the black-seed varieties as re- 
spects yield and method of cultivation, and Whitney's invention 
had at last removed the only hindrance which, since the Revolu- 
tion, had prevented the planters from producing it as a marketable 
commodity. From Augusta as a center and chief market the 
culture of the short-staple cotton spread throughout the upland 
districts of Georgia and South Carolina. For more than a quarter 
of a century this continued to be the principal cotton-producing 
region of the country ; as late as 1820 over one-half of the entire 
crop grown was raised in these two states alone. 

The success of the cotton growers of Georgia and South 
Carolina now led the states to the north of them, Virginia and 
North Carolina, to attempt the production of this staple. Miller 
and Whitney sold their patent right to the saw-gin within the state 
of North Carolina to that state in December, 1802. At this time 
the culture of cotton had made but little progress within this 
state. But although the production of the staple continued to 
increase in both North Carolina and Virginia, its culture made no 
such rapid progress as in the states to the south and west of them. 
There was comparatively little land suited to the production of 
cotton, and the climate was less propitious than it was farther 
south. The danger that the frosts would come before the plant 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 269 

reached maturity made cotton growing a hazardous undertaking, 
and when the price sank below ten or twelve cents a pound, the 
cotton crops of both these states showed an immediate falling off. 
By i860 the cotton area of Virginia was confined to eight or ten 
counties lying in the southeastern corner of the state. In North 
Carolina the principal seat of cotton growing was on the long- 
leaf-pine lands extending through the middle of the state from 
north to south. 

Cotton culture seems to have begun in Tennessee almost coin- 
cident with the admission of that state into the Union. As early 
as July, 1797, Mr. Miller, of the firm of Miller and Whitney, 
proposed to his partner that they send an agent to Knoxville, 
V where we were informed that cotton was valuable," and to Nash- 
ville and the Cumberland settlements, to gather information con- 
cerning the culture of cotton in these parts and the mode of 
cleaning it. On the return of the agent through the "back parts 
of Virginia," he was to look for an inland market for the con- 
sumption of cotton cleaned by the saw-gin. By the beginning of 
the century the culture of cotton in Tennessee had attained such 
importance that public meetings of the citizens were called at 
various places to petition the legislature to purchase of Miller and 
Whitney their patent right to the saw-gin within the limits of 
Tennessee. At one of these meetings held in Nashville, July 21, 
1802, General Andrew Jackson presided. In accordance with the 
desire of the petitioners, the legislature of Tennessee in 1803 
purchased of Miller and Whitney the right to use the saw-gin 
within the state limits. Cotton production in this state, with the 
exception of a few years in the '4o's, continued to increase at a 
uniform rate until the outbreak of the Civil War. 

Although cotton had been cultivated in the great territory of 
Louisiana even before its purchase by the United States, little 
attention had been given to the western lands until after 1820. 
Cotton was still supposed to be the staple of the uplands. But in 
the decade ending with 1830, the superiority of the prairie lands 
and river bottoms for cotton growing began to be appreciated, and 
by 1830 the western country had outstripped the Eastern states in 
cotton production. It was in the following decade, however, that 



270 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

cotton cultivation in the United States received its most rapid 
extension from the settlement of the western lands. The move- 
ment of slave holders and their property to central Alabama and 
to the Mississippi river bottoms we have already mentioned. A 
perfect mania for cotton raising and for speculation in western 
lands had seized hold of the people during these years. 

This speculative tendency was greatly fostered by the opera- 
tions of the state banks, which were established in this region after 
the downfall of the United States Bank. The facility with which 
these banks granted loans gave an unnatural stimulus to the pur- 
chase of farming lands and to the extension of cotton growing. 
The new settlers in the western country took up large tracts of 
land, which, together with their negroes, they mortgaged to the 
new banks for loans with which to carry on their planting industry, 
and then turned over to the banks the cotton which they harvested. 
Trusting in the high prices of cotton, the banks advanced funds 
far beyond what wisdom dictated, sometimes advancing as much 
as fifteen cents per pound. In 183 6- 1837 came a great collapse 
in prices, followed by a period of bank failures and of distress for 
the new planters who were unable to obtain further advances for 
continuing their agricultural operations. Within a period of three 
years fifty-five million dollars had been applied to the cultivation 
of lands in the new cotton states, and the production of cotton in 
these states had nearly doubled. 

********** 

The possibilities of Texas as a cotton-growing region were fully 
appreciated even before that vast territory had become a part 
of the Union. The most notable increase in cotton production 
between 1850 and i860 came from this state, but the sparse 
population prevented it from surpassing the Mississippi country 
as a cotton-producing region previous to the Civil War. 

By 1850 all the territory through which the cotton belt now 
passes had been acquired by the United States, and the outline 
of the cotton belt, almost as it has since remained, was already 
to be traced. Some counties (especially in Texas and Arkansas) 
which did not then produce cotton now do so, and in all of the 
states the acreage and production of many counties have greatly 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 271 

increased, and yet the boundaries of the cotton belt have been 
pushed comparatively little beyond what they were in 1850. In 
the new states west of the Mississippi the cotton region lay 
entirely to the south of the isothermal line for mean summer 
temperature. East of the river it extended north of this line, 
which passed through northern Alabama and Georgia and mid- 
dle South Carolina. The area of chief production began in 
southeastern Virginia, and, usually avoiding the coast, passed 
through the central portions of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama 
and Mississippi, then widened to the northward and embraced 
northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas, and ended in the 
central portion of the great state of Texas. 

It will doubtless surprise many readers to learn that notwith- 
standing this vast area within which cotton was the leading staple 
cultivated, the actual acreage devoted to this crop at any time 
previous to the Civil War was very small. The crop of 1859- 
1860, which was by far the largest that had ever been pro- 
duced, being in excess of 2,000,000,000 pounds, was raised on 
an acreage less than that included within the boundaries of South 
Carolina, even when the most liberal estimate of the cotton acreage 
is accepted. 

In 1836, when cotton cultivation had begun to extend beyond 
the Mississippi, Woodbury's report, estimating the production 
per acre at a little less than 250 pounds, considered the whole 
amount of land then devoted to cotton raising to be not far 
from 2,000,000 acres. From calculations made on the basis 
of the census of 1840, De Bow estimated the number of acres 
devoted to the cultivation of cotton at 4,500,000, and in 1850, 
as superintendent of the Seventh Census, he estimated the 
cotton area at 5,000,000 acres. The census of i860 estimated 
the large crop of cotton grown that year to be the product 
of 6,968,498 acres, but as already, mentioned, later and more 
careful estimates nearly double the acreage. It is quite prob- 
able that the estimates of early years were also too conserv- 
ative, and that the entire acreage was larger than it was then 
supposed to be. But even if the later estimate of 13,000,000 
acres for i860 be allowed, we still find the total acreage to have 



2/2 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

been less than four per cent of the landed area of the ten great 
cotton states. Nearly all the tillable land in these states was 
capable of cotton production, and yet the demand for more land 
for the cultivation of this staple constituted the basis of the 
Southern clamor for an extension of the federal domain. 

. . . The colonial system was the only system in vogue when 
the era of cotton culture began, and the cultivation of this plant 
therefore came under the same unfortunate methods of farming as 
were pursued in the culture of the other Southern staples. Only 
in the sea-island-cotton-producing districts was there any notable 
improvement in agricultural methods due to the introduction and 
extension of cotton culture. Early experiments in the culture of 
this variety of cotton showed that its price was greatly height- 
ened by improvements in its quality, and this fact led the 
planters of the long-staple cotton to use great care in the selec- 
tion of the seed and in the subsequent cultivation of the plant. 
Throughout the great cotton belt, however, where either the 
upland or New Orleans cotton was cultivated, but little attention 
was given to methods of agriculture, that method being consid- 
ered the most profitable which raised the largest crop with the 
least trouble to the planter. 

The method of clearing cotton lands, while not characteristic 
of the Southern States alone, and, considering the abundance of 
timber and the scarcity of labor in the early years, often justifiable, 
seems to the scientific agriculturist a very wasteful one. Weak 
handed planters in selecting a site for a plantation in a timbered 
region first cut through the bark a ring around the larger trees. 
This caused the trees to die. The smaller trees were at once cut 
down and burned, and the ground broken up and planted. In a 
few seasons the wind would blow down the deadened trees, which 
would then be rolled together in log heaps and also burned. 
Usually a few crops of Indian corn or wheat would be taken off 
the land before the fields were ready for cotton. 

The methods of planting and cultivating cotton while slavery 
continued were very simple, and with few variations were the 
same throughout the South. After preparing the land for cultiva- 
tion by breaking down the cotton or corn stalks of the previous 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 273 

year, the field was laid off in beds by plowing a furrow between 
the old rows and lapping on this from four to six other furrows, 
according to the size of the plow and the desired distance between 
the rows. The field was thus left in ridges about four feet apart. 
After the ground had been pulverized by a small ^harrow, the 
ridges were split open with a small plow, and the seed was sown 
into this furrow at the rate of two or more bushels per acre. This 
was usually done by a negro woman, who carried the seed in her 
apron and strewed the seed several feet along the furrow at each 
cast of the hand. The furrow was closed by means of the harrow 
or a board which had a concave under surface to fit the crest of 
the ridge, and was screwed to a small shovel or " scooter " plow. 
When the cotton had attained a height of several inches, the 
laborious process of thinning began. This was done by means of 
a hoe, followed (sometimes preceded) by a plow to again round 
up the ridge, and to keep the space between the rows free from 
weeds. With the hoe the grass on the sides of the ridge was 
cleaned away, and the cotton blocked out in the rows, leaving two 
plants (eventually only one) in hills twelve or fourteen inches 
apart. The cotton continued to be cultivated in this way with the 
hoe and plow or with an implement called a " sweep," at intervals 
of about twenty days, until nearly picking time, the ground being 
thus gone over from three to five times. Planting began as early 
as the end of February in some of the eastern states, and was 
often not ended until the middle of May in the Southwest. The 
first blooms usually appeared in May and June, and picking be- 
gan about the first of August in the East and continued until the 
middle of December in the West. This was a tedious but not 
laborious task, and in its accomplishment women and children as 
well as men were employed. In the early part of the century 
fifty pounds a day were accounted the average per hand, but by 
1854 Wailes states that "the children double this; and two 
hundred pounds is not unfrequently the average of the whole 
gang of hands, to say nothing of those who pick their four or 
five hundred pounds of cotton." 

There were few agricultural implements employed in the cultiva- 
tion of cotton previous to the war, and such as were in use were of 



274 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a very simple order. Machinery was not used at all in. the cultiva- 
tion of Southern crops. The tools employed were usually the work 
of the neighborhood blacksmith, or were made on the plantation, 
"in a style which was the excess of bungling." Such were the 
w scooter " or " bull tongue," a strip of four-inch bar iron, pointed 
and bent, used for opening the furrow in which the seed was 
sown ; the " sweep," an implement having two wide-cutting 
blades forming two sides of a triangle, and used for cleaning the 
grass or weeds from the rows; and the "scraper" already de- 
scribed, used for covering the furrow in which the seed had been 
sown. These tools, together with the clumsy all-iron breaking 
plows and turning plows, and the hoe, " the rudest, the least 
effective and the most exhaustive to strength and patience of any 
tool largely used," were about the only implements that were in 
use on the Southern plantations before the war. Even " cotton 
planters " were not widely used. Seabrook reports that as late as 
1844 the plow was unknown to the growers of the long-staple 
cotton, except " in the breaking up of the soil, and as an assist- 
ant in forming the ridge." The slight expenditure for agricul- 
tural implements is illustrated by the statement of De Bow that 
on a South Carolina plantation of 4200 acres, 2700 of which 
were under cultivation, and where 254 slaves were employed, the 
capital invested in all plantation tools and implements, including 
wagons, was only equal to $1262, and on an Alabama plantation 
of 1 100 acres, with 120 slaves, the implements were valued at $500. 
Much was written by Southern agriculturists and editors pre- 
vious to i860 on the subject of fertilizers for cotton. Neverthe- 
less, the use of this artificial means for restoring fertility to the 
soil was a very limited one. In 1808 Ramsay wrote of the South 
Carolina planters as follows : " The art of manuring land is little 
understood and less practiced. The bulk of the planters, relying 
on the fertility of the soil, seldom planting any but what is good, 
and changing land when it begins to fail for that which is fresh, 
seldom give themselves the trouble to keep their fields in heart." 
Although there were thousands of acres of pasture lands which 
could have been utilized for raising stock or for raising hay to 
feed the cattle in winter, although there were numerous beds of 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 275 

compost and marl scattered throughout the Southern States, 
" ample for a perpetual supply for all possible drain upon the 
resources of the soil," and although the long coast line was 
able to furnish ' ( abundant stores of fish and seaweed for manur- 
ing adjacent fields," very few of the planters knew of the value 
and use of these fertilizers, and of those who did know, but few 
applied them. 

Cotton is said to be the least exhaustive to the soil of any of 
the great staple crops of America, and if the seed is returned to 
the soil there is comparatively little of the vitality of the land 
withdrawn by cultivation, but even this slight effort of fertilization 
was not resorted to by the majority of the cultivators. There were 
always, of course, a few planters who gave their attention to im- 
proved methods of cultivation and made a profitable use of ferti- 
lizers, and there were many more who scattered on their lands 
the cotton seed or the small supplies of stable manure which had 
collected over winter. So little attention was given to stock rais- 
ing, however, and to the preservation of the stable manures, that 
these feeble efforts to delay exhaustion were of little avail. The 
planters in the rich bottom lands along the Mississippi hauled 
the cotton seed into the bayous to be eaten by the hogs or to be 
carried into the Gulf by the " Father of Waters." 

During the later years of the slave regime cotton seed became 
a valuable article for the market, and the planters began hauling it 
to the cotton-seed mills. Had they stipulated for a return of the 
hulls after the oil had been extracted, and returned these to the 
soil, there would still have been but little loss to the soil and per- 
haps a gain, but few of them did this. Land was so little valued 
that the owners did not consider it profitable to attempt to main- 
tain the fertility of old lands when new ones of greater fertility 
were to be had almost for the asking. It was considered more 
profitable to withdraw the entire wealth from the soil than to 
replace it, more profitable to "kill land" than to cultivate it. 

As was naturally to be supposed, the first signs of exhaustion 
came from the Atlantic coast states, and some attention had been 
given in the Carolinas and Georgia during the 50's to restoring 
the fertility of the soil by means of manuring and crop rotation. 



276 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

In the Southwest, however, no attention was given to this subject 
until some years after the war, and even in the Eastern states 
the proportion of fertilized land was insignificant. 

The failure of the cotton planter to use fertilizers he did not 
atone for by adopting any other measures for the prevention of 
soil exhaustion. Rotation of crops was almost unknown at the 
South where the one-field system of cultivation had come down 
from colonial days. The one great object was to raise cotton, 
and the land was planted in this crop for a succession of years, 
until it refused longer to bring forth a remunerative yield and was 
then "turned out" to grow up in briars, sassafras and scrub 
pines. " A purchaser looking for land, if he found a field without 
a stump, considered that fact prima facie evidence that it was 
worn out." 

The suitableness of cotton for slave labor and the high prices 
which this staple often brought on the market stimulated the 
planters to raise cotton almost exclusively, and to raise it on lands 
which were better suited to other crops. The high prices of 
provisions compelled many of the planters, especially in the 
Eastern states, to alternate corn with cotton, thus making a two- 
field system of cultivation. But such a change was of little value 
in preventing the wearing out of the lands, for it violated the first 
principles of rotation introduced into agricultural science by the 
old three-field system of cultivation, which prescribed that crops 
of the same nature should not be planted in succession, but that 
a winter crop should succeed a summer crop, with the land lying 
fallow the third year. Both Indian corn and cotton were summer 
crops, were cultivated in the same manner, and although their 
chemical analysis was imperfect, seemed to draw the same ingre- 
dients from the soil. Yet as late as i860 this was the only 
regular rotation pursued on any large scale in the cotton belt. 

Drainage and various systems of sub-soiling were measures 
often recommended for deferring, if not preventing, the exhaustion 
of the soil. The Tullian or Lois Weeden system, which combined 
fallowing with sub-soiling, was for some time a theme much 
discussed by " theoretical " agriculturists, but not many " practi- 
cal " farmers had heard of it, much less made use of it. Deep 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 277 

plowing was little followed. The ground was usually scratched to 
the depth of about two and a half inches by the old iron breaking 
plows universally in use on the plantations, and when this shallow 
cultivation had ceased to be profitable, the planter removed to 
new lands. 

This system of agriculture which was so rapidly depleting the 
cotton lands of their fertility, was not characteristic of the South 
alone. It had been the method universally practiced in all the 
North American colonies, and it is still the only system known on 
the wheat lands of the Northwest. Intensive culture has never 
been resorted to by any people or in any region as long as the 
extensive system has proven the more profitable. Labor and 
capital are too scarce in a new country to admit of any other 
than an extensive system being pursued. " New settlers are not 
censurable for beginning this exhaustive culture." 

But what was notable about Southern agriculture was that even 
the apparent injury done to the land by the " one-crop " system 
had little or no effect in bringing about a change in the methods 
of cultivation. " The system is such," wrote an editor of a South- 
ern agricultural paper in i860, " that the planter scarcely considers 
his land as a part of his permanent investment. It is rather a 
part of his current expenses. He buys a wagon and uses it until 
it is worn out, and then throws it away. He buys a plow, or hoe, 
and treats both in the same way. He buys land, uses it until it is 
exhausted and then sells it, as he sells scrap iron, for whatever it 
will bring. It is with him a perishable or movable property. It 
is something to be worn out, not improved. The period of its 
endurance is, therefore, estimated in its original purchase; and the 
price is regulated accordingly. If it be very rich, level land that 
will last a number of years, the purchaser will pay a fair price for 
it. But if it be rolling land, as is the greater bulk of the interior 
of the Southern States, he considers how much of the tract 
is washed or worn out, how long the fresh land will last, how 
much is too broken for cultivation, and in view of these points 
determines the value of the property." 

As the land became exhausted in the old cotton states, such as 
South Carolina and Georgia, the planters abandoned their estates 



2;8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and moved farther west to Alabama or Tennessee, there to begin 
over again the process of ■••* land killing " and then, perhaps, once 
more desert their fields and settle on the virgin soils of Arkansas 
or Texas. Of those who did not leave the older states, many 
abandoned cotton culture. The cotton crop of i860 showed an 
increase of more than 100 per cent over that of 1850. But the 
increase in the Atlantic coast states was only 44 per cent, while 
in the western cotton states, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, the increase was over 153 per 
cent. The crop of 1850 was about an average one for the dec- 
ade 1851-1860. If we could compare by states the average 
crops for the two decades, it is doubtful whether we would find 
much, if any, increase in the production of the Atlantic states. 

While the value per acre of the occupied land in the older 
states of the North was several times greater than in the new 
states to the west of them, in the South directly the opposite of 
this was true. In 1850 the occupied land in the Atlantic coast 
states was valued at only $5.34 per acre, while that of the South- 
western states was worth $6.26 per acre. " What are we to do in 
South Carolina ? " wrote ex-Governor Hammond of that state in 
1858. " But a small proportion of the land we now cultivate will 
produce two thousand pounds of ginned cotton to the hand. It is 
thought that our average production cannot exceed twelve hun- 
dred pounds, and that a great many planters do not grow over 
one thousand pounds to the hand. ... A great deal has been 
said upon the improvement of our agricultural system. Neither 
our agricultural societies nor our agricultural essays have effected 
anything worth speaking of. And it does seem that, while the 
fertile regions of the Southwest are open to the cotton planters, 
it is vain to expect them to embark to any extent in improve- 
ments which are expensive, difficult or hazardous. . . . Our cot- 
ton region is too broad and our Southern people too homogeneous 
for metes and bounds to enforce the necessity of improving any 
particular locality." 

But the low prices and greater fertility of the western lands 
were not the only reasons why the exhaustive system of land 
cultivation continued at the South. The same opportunities for 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 279 

western expansion existed at the North, and while the methods 
of cultivation there were far from perfect, it had been found more 
profitable in New England and the Middle States to manure the 
ground and to rotate the crops when the fields showed signs of 
exhaustion than to abandon them for western lands. Only the 
surplus population was sent to the new states. 

The diversity of crops grown was much greater in the North 
than in the South, and this permitted the adoption of a more 
complex and beneficial system of tillage than the one- or two-field 
systems. In the South the greater crops of all the slave-holding 
states were hoed crops, cotton, corn, tobacco and sugar cane, and 
a rotation of these was of little value in preserving the fertility 
of the soil. To some extent the planters were excusable for not 
cultivating other crops. Wheat and other small grains were often 
unprofitable on account of the rust. For many other commodities 
there was no market. A diversified system of farming demands 
to a large extent a local market, for many kinds of produce raised 
under this system, such as vegetables and fruits, will, on account 
of their perishableness, difficulty of transportation, etc., meet with 
only a local demand. The small urban population of the South, 
itself largely a result of the difficulty of applying Southern labor 
power to urban pursuits, created very limited local markets. There 
were in the ten great cotton states in 1850 but seven cities hav- 
ing each 8000 or more inhabitants, and in i860 there were but 
eleven such cities. With the exception of Indian corn, such crops 
as were raised were produced for the world market. Corn was 
raised only for domestic use. With bacon it constituted almost 
the only food used by the slaves and a considerable portion of the 
whites. As the corn fattened the hogs as well as the negroes, 
the subsistence of the laboring population was practically condi- 
tioned by the supply of this one commodity. This explains its 
extensive cultivation at the South. But corn was never intended 
to take the place of cotton as the principal crop. Cotton was 
given the best lands, and by many planters not enough corn was 
raised to supply the needs of the plantation. 

Another important reason for the continuance of the " one-field " 
system of agriculture* lay in the speculative character of cotton 



280 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

raising. Taken year after year, the culture of cotton did not yield 
such large profits as would have resulted from a diversified system 
of farming, and it often proved the occasion of loss. Thousands 
of planters heavily in debt had their crops pledged to the cotton 
buyers long before they were harvested, possibly even before they 
were planted. 

Notwithstanding these failures, the high prices which resulted 
when there was a failure of the crop elsewhere furnished the 
planter an incentive to continue the " one-crop " system, and to 
rely on his cotton crop to pay off the debts which its exclusive 
cultivation had brought upon him. "As I have no disposition to 
gamble, or invest in lotteries, I do not raise cotton," wrote one 
Arkansas planter who had become disgusted with the speculative 
character of cotton raising and had gone over to a diversified 
system of farming. 

But it was the ease with which the planter could remove to 
other lands when the old plantation fields had become exhausted 
that furnished the principal reason for the failure to adopt an 
intensive system of agriculture at the South. The comparatively 
sparse population of this part of the country, due to the fact that 
the lack of respect for labor there discouraged immigration, lim- 
ited the demand for new lands largely to those who were pursu- 
ing the system of cultivation by exhausting the old lands. The 
limited competition for land therefore kept the price down to 
where it was cheaper to take up these new tracts than to keep 
up the fertility of the old fields, and this fact permitted the ex- 
tensive system of cultivation to continue longer without being felt 
than would have been the case had conditions been otherwise. 
No planter thought of holding only such land as he wished to 
cultivate at one time. In taking up a new tract of land, he did 
it with the intention of cultivating only a part of it and then 
"turning it out" and bringing into cultivation another portion 
of the plantation. Of the land in farms in the old cotton states, 
the Carolinas and Georgia, over 70 per cent was unimproved in 
the decade 18 50-1 860, while New England and the Middle 
States, with less fertile soils, showed approximately two-thirds of 
their farm lands to be under cultivation. The habit of considering 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 281 

the negro slave rather than the land the investment made it easy 
and inexpensive for the planter to remove from one part of the 
country to the other. Capital and labor were united in the per- 
son of the negro slave, and the planter who had once decided to 
emigrate found it easy to take his property with him. 

The part played by compulsory labor in the cultivation of the 
cotton plant previous to i860 was so great as to almost completely 
identify in the mind of the observer the two institutions, the 
culture of cotton and negro slavery. Slave labor was not con- 
fined to the cultivation of cotton, it is true. In the rice swamps 
of Georgia and the Carolinas and on the sugar plantations of 
Louisiana, slaves did nearly all the work, and they also formed a 
large proportion of the labor force of the Kentucky, Maryland 
and Virginia tobacco plantations. But the number of acres de- 
voted to the production of these crops was comparatively small, 
and the number of negro slaves employed in their cultivation in 
1850 was scarcely more than equal to the total number of slaves 
in the United States in 1790, before the real movement in favor 
of cotton had begun. The increase in the slave population after 
1790 was absorbed mainly by the cotton industry, and we have 
already noted the wonderful effect which the expansion of this 
industry had upon the price of slaves. 

Although in the majority of cases the planter worked the 
plantation with his own negroes, the hiring of slaves from their 
master by the year was not unusual. The price paid varied, of 
course, not only with the age, sex and working ability of the 
slave, but also according to the section of the country. By an 
investigation made by the Bureau of Agriculture at Washington 
at the close of the war, it was ascertained that the average prices 
paid for agricultural labor in i860 were about as shown in the 
table on the following page. . 

Numerous estimates have been made as to the cost of maintain- 
ing a slave throughout the year. Obviously there is a wide room 
for disagreement here, for many varying factors need to be con- 
sidered. On large plantations the average cost was less than on 
the small ones. Some planters raised enough corn and made 
enough pork to feed the negroes throughout the year, while others 



282 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Men 



Women 



Youth 



Virginia . . . 
North Carolina 
South Carolina 
Georgia . . . 
Florida . . . 
Alabama . . 
Mississippi 
Louisiana . . 
Texas . . . 
Arkansas . . 
Tennessee . . 



$105 
no 

103 

124 

139 

138 

166 
171 
166 
170 

121 



$46 

49 
55 
75 
80 

89 
100 
120 
109 
108 

63 



#39 
50 
43 
57 
65 
66 

71 
72 
80 
80 
60 



purchased all or nearly all the food supplies. Some planters 
furnished twice as much clothing to their slaves as others did. 
Some planters furnished meat as a regular article of diet. Others 
furnished it only occasionally. The shelter and clothing required 
by slaves in the border states was, of course, in excess of that 
needed in the mild climate of the Gulf States. From observations 
made and statistics gathered by De Bow, Russell and others, it 
would seem that on the large plantations the average cost of 
maintaining a slave throughout the year, including expenditures 
for clothing, food, tobacco, etc., and the payment of taxes, was 
not far from $15, and that on the small plantations the expendi- 
tures for maintenance of. the slaves often amounted to $30 or $40 
per capita. Perhaps the average expense for maintenance of the 
slaves, young and old, throughout the cotton belt, would be not 
far from $20 per annum. 

Merely from a business standpoint it was to the interest of the 
planter to furnish sufficient food and clothing to his slave to keep 
him in health and good working order ; and suffering for want of 
food was no doubt a thing of seldom occurrence. This food, how- 
ever, was of a coarse kind, and though healthful, lacked variety. 
Olmsted considered it inferior to that furnished prison convicts 
at the North. From four to six (sometimes as high as ten) quarts 
of corn meal and a quart of molasses were usually dealt out to 
the negroes each week. To this were sometimes added vegetables 
in their season and usually half a pound of bacon for every 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 283 

able-bodied negro. Louisiana was the only state which required by 
law the furnishing of meat to slaves, and even there it does not 
seem always to have been observed, although it was generally 
practiced throughout the South. On most of the plantations the 
negroes were allowed to cultivate "truck patches," and to raise 
poultry and sometimes a pig. What produce thus raised they 
did not themselves consume, they sold, and invested the returns 
in tobacco, whiskey and Sunday finer} 7 . 

On some plantations, however, the slaves were not allowed to 
cultivate these "patches," for it tempted them to reserve for 
cultivating their gardens in the evening the strength which should 
have been expended in the cotton field. The hours of work on 
the cotton plantations were from sunrise to sunset. During the 
picking season the negroes worked as long as they could see. 
South Carolina had a statute forbidding the working of slaves for 
more than fifteen hours a day. Noon "rests" of from one to 
two hours were not infrequent, though far from universal. 

In eastern Georgia and South Carolina the work was performed 
by " tasks." Each laborer had assigned to him the amount of work 
which he was expected to do in a day, such as hoeing from one- 
half an acre to an acre of corn or cotton, or picking a certain amount 
of cotton. When he had finished his task, if there were time left, 
the slave was allowed to use it as he pleased. This method of 
" tasking " was greatly preferred by the slave to any other method 
of working. Many finished their "tasks" by the middle of the 
afternoon. The slaves were worked in " gangs," and were classed 
as "full hands," "three-quarter hands," "half hands," and "one- 
quarter hands," these terms referring to the portion of a "full 
hand's " work which was required of each slave. " Even* negro 
knows his rate and lawful task so well that if he thinks himself 
imposed upon by the driver he appeals at once to the master." 

The " tasks " were set by the drivers, whose business it was to 
see that they were performed. Drivers were usually selected from 
among the stronger and more intelligent slaves. White overseers 
were required by law on each plantation where the owner did 
not himself personally superintend the work. On the smaller 
plantations the overseers were also the drivers. 



284 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The overseers of the plantation were generally selected from 
the lower grades of whites and did not enter the best society of 
the South. They were often of a brutal character. Their wages 
varied from $200 to $600 a year, but sometimes $1000 or $1500 
was paid when the planter did not reside on the plantation and 
the overseer had entire responsibility. The overseer was valued 
according to the crop which he was able to make, and therefore 
many of them worked the slaves with little regard to the health 
and endurance of the latter. Mr. W. W. Phillips of Jackson, 
Mississippi, one of the most intelligent planters of the South, 
wrote as follows to an agricultural paper, The Southern Planter: 
" Overseers are not interested in raising children, or meat, in 
improving land, or improving productive qualities of seed or ani- 
mals. Many of them do not care whether property has depreciated 
or improved, so they have made a crop (of cotton) to boast of." 

The custom of valuing the overseer according to t}ie amount 
of work which he could get out of the negroes led to frequent 
changes in overseers, one being rarely employed more than two 
years. "Two years of service is sure to spoil them." 

It is much easier now, after thirty years' experience of free 
labor in the cotton fields, to judge of the relative advantages of 
free and slave labor in the cultivation of this staple. The number 
of free laborers employed prior to i860 was small, and the con- 
ditions of their employment were usually so different from those 
of slave labor that comparison between the two systems is neces- 
sarily imperfect. Yet the opportunities for such comparison were 
not wholly wanting, and the results warrant us in saying that it 
was a misfortune for Southern agriculture that slave labor was 
ever applied to the cultivation of the cotton plant. As has been 
pointed out in the preceding chapter, cotton culture offered many 
and great advantages over other crops for the use of slave labor ; 
but slavery had few, if any, advantages over free labor for the 
cultivation of cotton. On the sugar and rice plantations on the 
low, marshy coast land, where the climate was unpropitious for 
whites, there was probably an economy in the use of slavery so 
long as the colonial system of agriculture was itself profitable, and 
perhaps the same was true of the Mississippi river bottoms. But 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 285 

there were no climatic disadvantages for whites throughout the 
greater part of the cotton belt, where the use of slave labor was 
directly responsible for the perpetuation of the " one-field " system 
of agriculture long after that method of tillage had survived its 
period of usefulness and had succeeded in completely exhausting 
the fertility of the once productive soils. 

Slave labor probably cost absolutely, though not relatively, less 
than free labor, and the owner had the advantage of absolute 
control over the laborer's services. But this was more than offset 
by the lack of interest which the slave took in his work. His low 
cost of maintenance did not make up for his waste of his master's 
property. The slave learned methods of agriculture slowly, and he 
therefore worked best when employed in cultivating only one crop. 
And as to allow him to remain idle was to lose for the time being 
the use of almost the entire capital of the planter, it became 
necessary to furnish employment which should last throughout 
the year. The cultivation of cotton spread over three-fourths of 
the year, and, together with the clearing of new lands, furnished 
continuous employment to slave labor, which the cultivation of 
the cereals, the raising of grasses, vegetables, fruits, etc., would 
not have done. The slave, therefore, stood in the way of the 
adoption of a rotative system of agriculture. While cotton raising 
by means of slave labor was an industry of increasing or even 
constant returns, the profits of the planter were invested in new 
lands and more slaves. When the industry reached that point in 
diminishing returns where the profits disappeared, the planter, 
instead of reducing his labor force and landed property for the 
purpose of adopting an intensive system of farming, found greater 
profit in breeding slaves for the planters on the still unexhausted 
western lands. 

The one great advantage which Mr. Russell, who seems to have 
been favorably impressed with the slave system, found in the culti- 
vation of cotton by means of slave labor, was the " organization 
and division of labor," of which their numbers permitted on the 
large plantations. This seems to have been a conclusion derived 
from a priori reasoning, rather than from observation, for there 
were no large plantations worked by free labor previous to the 



286 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Civil War. But, at most, this statement could have been true for 
large plantations only, and the general proposition that slave labor 
was more profitable than free labor would, therefore, rest on the 
hypothesis that the system of grande adhere was more profitable 
for cotton than petite culture. Mr. Russell assumed that it was, 
and as he was logical enough also to hold that the system of grow- 
ing corn and cotton continuously until the land was so exhausted 
that it had to be abandoned "to nature for a series of years" 
was the best system that could be pursued in cotton culture, his 
assumption based on this premise was doubtless a correct one. 
But the scientific agriculturists of the South did not agree with 
Mr. Russell as to the wisdom of the exhaustive system of agricul- 
ture, although there were apparently few of them who were willing 
to ascribe this system to the maintenance of slavery. 

Of the free labor which was engaged in the cultivation of cotton, 
the greater part was of a class which was far from representative 
of the average intelligence and ability of American agricultural 
labor. Immigrants were repelled from the South by the stigma 
cast on labor in a slave region. The majority of the white laborers 
were of the class of "poor whites," many of them descendants of 
the " redemptioners," " servants sold for the custom," and " inden- 
tured servants " sent into the colonies by Great Britain from the 
London streets and the debtor prisons. Released from their period 
of bondage, and finding it impossible to enter the social ranks of 
the property-holding classes, and with their labor despised because 
of the association which it had with slavery, these people and 
their descendants had become the parasites of Southern society. 
Some of them were forced into the mountain region of eastern 
Tennessee and Kentucky and western North Carolina, and others 
were left on the abandoned cotton and tobacco lands of the sand- 
hill region of South Carolina and Georgia. Even in the western 
states they were always found on the poorer lands. These people 
obtained a scanty subsistence by raising on their depleted soils 
small quantities of Indian corn, vegetables and cotton, or quite 
often by stealing from their wealthier neighbors on the large 
plantations. In addition to the cotton which they used in their 
homespun garments, these small farmers usually raised one or two 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 287 

bales for market. Those among them who had any ambition to 
advance in the world purchased a slave as soon as they were able. 
With one slave secured, it was easy to purchase another on credit. 

Yet even with this poor grade of white labor, a considerable 
quantity of cotton was produced for market, and something is to 
be said for it if it could afford to raise cotton on lands on which 
slave labor was not profitable. Even Mr. Russell recognized that 
slave labor was only suited to the rich lands, and that in the pine 
barrens, under the small farming system, free white labor had the 
advantage. For, in spite of the competition of the large planters, 
it was by the cultivation of cotton that these small farmers made 
their profits. 

But the best example of the advantages of free labor in the 
cotton fields, the only example, in fact, which should be taken to 
fairly compare the two systems, was the cultivation of cotton by the 
German settlers around New Braunfels, on the plains of Texas. 
Mr. Russell failed to take account of this, probably because he did 
not believe that Texas was destined to become a great cotton- 
producing region. This comparison between free and slave labor 
is eminently fair to slavery, for the two systems here competed 
on virgin soil, on which slave labor was always employed with its 
maximum advantage. The small farms worked by the whites were 
under many disadvantages, due to larger proportional expenses for 
fencing, for farm implements and animals, and for ginning. The 
small farmer was also obliged to sell his cotton through middle- 
men, while the larger planter dealt directly with the exporter. 

Notwithstanding these disadvantages the Germans prospered in 
the cultivation of cotton, and although they were only a mere hand- 
ful in number, they were able to send ten thousand bales of cotton 
to market in a single year. Their fields were cleaner picked and 
the workers showed more skill and intelligence at their work than 
the slaves who had been reared in the cotton field. The cotton 
which they sent to market was also better cleaned and baled and 
was worth from one to two cents more per pound than the cotton 
cleaned by slave labor. Their methods of cultivation, their lands 
and farm improvements and their standard of living were far 
better than those of their wealthy slave-owning neighbors. 



288 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The reader will have already understood that the characteristic 
form of the cotton plantation was the large estate. Not all the 
large landed properties in the South, however, were confined to 
cotton culture. Many of the large plantations were already in 
existence when cotton culture was introduced. Their origin is to 
be traced partly to the social customs of the early settlers, many 
of whom were the sons of the English landed gentry ; partly to 
the facilities of commerce offered by the wide and slowly mov- 
ing rivers in the Southern colonies, along whose banks the large 
plantations were usually to be found ; partly to the laws of in- 
heritance existing in the Southern colonies ; and partly to the 
nature of the commodities which were raised on these planta- 
tions — tobacco, indigo and rice — the cultivation of which re- 
quired more capital than was possessed by the small farmer. 
The large plantation owed its existence, most of all, however, to 
the labor system which existed in the Southern colonies where 
either slave labor or compulsory white labor was the prevailing 
form. The organization and superintendence of enforced labor 
was more easy and more economical on the large plantation than 
on the small one. 

In spite of the hopes and predictions of many Southern writers 
at the close of the eighteenth century, the introduction of cotton 
culture did not result in a change from the large plantation system 
of agriculture to that carried on on small holdings. The tendency 
did, indeed, at first seem to be in that direction. The more 
industrious of the poor whites who had lacked the capital for 
engaging in the cultivation of indigo or rice were often led to 
take up a small holding, and, with the aid of their families, to 
engage in the raising of cotton. The abolition of the law of pri- 
mogeniture in South Carolina and elsewhere also contributed to 
the breaking up of the large plantations. Besides, in cultivating 
the sea-island cotton, it had been discovered that there were great 
profits in developing this grade of cotton to the highest degree 
possible, and this required intensive cultivation, such as could be 
carried on only on the small plantation. But notwithstanding these 
circumstances which seemed favorable to the development of the 
small estate, the great movement throughout the cotton belt was 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 289 

in the other direction. Cotton culture on large plantations offered 
great advantages to the slave holder over that of other crops. Such 
free labor as was to be found in the South was not of a character 
to push cotton raising on small estates by scientific methods of agri- 
culture. It was easy to continue the old methods. And a system 
of agriculture which had no regard for the soil found its greatest 
profit by working as large a body of laborers and cultivating as 
many acres as could be successfully superintended by one man. 
The aim was to keep cost of production to a minimum. 

For a number of years, therefore, the general tendency was to 
increase the size of the plantations. " Farms have a tendency to 
decrease in size more rapidly where the land is poor than where 
it is rich." In the older states, along the Atlantic coast, as the 
soil became exhausted, the planters who did not abandon their 
estates in order to seek out Western lands were forced to reduce 
the size of their holdings and to begin an intensive system of 
cultivation. This stage had been reached in the older states a 
decade before the emancipation of the slaves, and this is evi- 
denced not only by the increased use of fertilizers and the 
adoption of a better system of agriculture, but likewise by the 
diminution in the size of farms. In the new states, however, 
the tendency towards smaller farms was not revealed previous to 
the Civil War. Not only do we find a failure to adopt improve- 
ments in agriculture, but with the exception of the first few 
years following the settlement of a state, when land speculators 
were selling out to new arrivals the lands which they had secured, 
we find the size of farms steadily increasing. 

"Our wealthy planters," said Mr. G. C. Clay, a member of 
Congress from Alabama, in 1853, "with greater means and no 
more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, extending their 
plantations, and adding to their slave force. The wealthy few, 
who are able to live on smaller profits and to give their blasted 
fields some rest, are thus pushing off the many who are merely 
independent." Not until 1850 do we have statistical information 
as to the size of farms in the cotton-growing states. But a com- 
parison of the figures furnished by the reports of this and the 
following census shows the truthfulness of the above assertions. 



290 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Year Admitted to 
Union 



Number of Farms 



Average Size 
(Acres) 



1850 



1860 



North Carolina 
South Carolina 
Georgia . . . 
Florida . . . 
Alabama . . 
Mississippi . . 
Louisiana . . 
Tennessee . . 
Arkansas . . 
Texas .... 



Original member 
Original member 
Original member 

1845 
1819 

1817 

1810 
1796 
1836 
1845 



56,963 
29,967 

51.759 
4.304 
41,964 
33'96o 
13,422 

72,735 
17,758 
12,108 



75.203 
33.i7i 
62,003 
6,568 
55,128 
42,840 
17,328 
82,368 
39,004 
42,891 



369 
54i 

441 

37i 
289 

309 
372 
261 
146 

942 



316 

488 
43° 
444 
346 
370 
536 
251 
245 
59i 



The average size of farms in the ten cotton states in 1850 
was 273 acres. The size of cotton plantations, however, is said 
to have seldom been less than 400 acres. Some of the planta- 
tions contained over 10,000 acres. There were in these same 
states in i860, 3634 farms of more than 1000 acres each; 
12,187 of more than 500 and less than 1000 acres, and 113,625 
containing from 100 to 500 acres each. 

In 1850 there were but 74,031 cotton plantations in the United 
States which produced more than 5 bales each. This divided 
into the estimated acreage of that year would give us approxi- 
mately 675 acres as the average amount of arable land devoted to 
cotton production on each plantation within the 10 cotton states. 

With the large plantations there naturally went large gangs 
of slaves. There were 347,525 families reported as holding 
slaves in 1850, but this number was too large, for, as Helper 
has pointed out, it included slave hirers. There were 2 persons 
reported by this census as holding each more than 1 000 slaves ; 
9 who held more than 500 and less than a thousand ; 56 holding 
from 300 to 500; 187 from 200 to 300; and 1479 f rom IO ° 
to 200. Whether or not these large slave properties were held 
by the holders of the large landed properties cannot be stated 
definitely. There is little doubt but that this was the case how- 
ever, for with few exceptions the slaves were employed almost 
exclusively in agriculture. 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 291 

Although there were many large estates in the slave-breeding 
states and in the old cotton states South Carolina and Georgia, 
the large cotton plantation was seen to its best advantage in the 
alluvial lands of Mississippi and Louisiana. Here was the cotton 
garden of the world, settled under the patronage of the state 
banks in the '3o's, and containing perhaps the richest soil in 
the United States. The land was all taken up in large hold- 
ings and worked by slaves. The owner seldom lived on the 
plantation. Absenteeism was in fact one of the great evils of 
grande culture in the South. " It may be computed from the 
census of 1850 that about one-half of the slaves of Louisiana 
and one-third those of Mississippi belong to estates of not less 
than fifty slaves each ; and of these, I believe nine-tenths live 
on plantations which their owners reside upon, if at all, but 
transiently." The management of the estates was confided to 
overseers. These, as we have seen, found their value rated 
according to the crop which they made, and the plantation, the 
slaves and other property suffered under their management of it. 
" Having once had the sole management of a plantation and 
imbibed the idea that the only test of good planting is to make 
a large crop of cotton, an overseer becomes worthless. He will 
no longer obey orders ; he will not stoop to details ; he scorns 
all improvements, and will not adopt any other plan of planting 
than simply to work lands, negroes and mules to the top of 
their bent, which necessarily proves fatal to every employer who 
will allow it." 

As the planters spent so little time upon their estates, they 
concerned themselves little with the farm improvements, such as 
buildings and fences. These were much inferior, not only to 
those on corresponding estates at the North, but also to those 
on the farms of Northern farmers of only moderate means. The 
overseers were usually housed in frame houses of an inferior 
sort ; large sheds sufficed for the storing of cotton until it was 
hauled to market ; there was seldom much farm stock, and such 
as was to be found, including work horses and mules, was poorly 
housed and sometimes only half fed. The negroes lived in small 
log houses about twenty feet square and containing usually only 



292 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the one room. The big western plantations seldom raised suffi- 
cient provisions for their own laborers or the feed for the horses 
and mules, but were almost entirely devoted to cotton. Il Large 
plantations," said Mr. Russell, "are not suited to the raising 
of hogs, for it is found to be almost impossible to prevent the 
negroes stealing and roasting the young pigs. This is one of 
the disadvantages in raising certain kinds of produce incidental to 
a system of slavery. The number of cattle which can be raised 
on the large cotton plantations, do little more than replace the 
draught oxen that are required. The sheep only supply the wool 
needed for clothing ; and the mules used for plowing are bred in 
the Northern states." 

The maximum efficiency of slave labor was said to be secured 
when not more than fifty negroes were placed under the manage- 
ment of a single overseer. The difficulty of securing good over- 
seers and the high salaries which were often paid them, however, 
frequently led to the placing of more than one hundred slaves 
under the supervision of one man. Each overseer regulated the 
hours for work on his own plantation. What these hours were 
we have already stated. 

The small plantations were for the most part in the old cot- 
ton states the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee. Their owners, 
usually of the poor-white class, were either non-slave-holders or 
owned only a few negroes. The most of the land where the 
small plantations flourished consisted of pine barrens. The owner 
was usually his own overseer and sometimes his own slave driver, 
although those who had any social pride would not do this de- 
grading work. There was a greater diversity in the crops grown 
on these small farms in the hill country than on the large plan- 
tations, due partly to the fact that the land had been exhausted 
for cotton, and partly because the planter could not afford to buy 
his corn and bacon, as did his richer neighbors. More stock was 
also raised, although it was usually of an inferior breed and was 
ill kept. As stock was allowed to run at large, some of the states 
compelled the planters to keep up fences. This was a serious 
burden to the small farmer, for, owing to his small enclosures, 
the proportion of land given up to fences was a large one and the 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 293 

cost of construction and maintenance of these fences was consid- 
erable. In South Carolina, the state geologist estimated in 1858 
that the cost of fences every ten years equalled the annual value 
of all the stock (cattle, sheep and hogs) which these fences were 
intended to prevent from becoming injurious to other property. 

Methods of cultivation on these small plantations were, owing 
to the ignorance of the people, but little better than those on 
the large plantations. In some portions of the South, however, 
where the people were of a more intelligent character, the houses 
and farm improvements were good, and the people lived in more 
comfort than even those living on the large plantations. Domes- 
tic manufactures flourished in these neighborhoods. Each fam- 
ily spun and wove from wool or cotton the garments required 
for the use of its own members, while the neighborhood shoe- 
maker and blacksmith supplied the shoes and farming implements 
required by the community. 

The almost universal form of land tenure throughout the cot- 
ton belt was individual ownership, whether of large or small 
tracts of land. In the hill country, as we have already observed, 
the small farms predominated ; elsewhere latifundia were the 
rule. The renting of land for agricultural purposes must have 
been extremely rare, for census and agricultural reports and 
travellers' accounts are alike silent in regard thereto. Where 
the' average price of occupied land was only $5 or $6 per acre 
and new lands could be secured for from 50 cents to $3 per 
acre, there would be small reason for any one renting land. It 
was not until the break-up of the agricultural system of the South 
by the Civil War that land in the planting states came to have a 
rental value. 

Although nearly every writer who has attempted to describe 
Southern agricultural conditions has had something to say about 
the credit system with which Southern agriculture was involved, 
definite information concerning this interesting phase of rural 
economy previous to the war is difficult to obtain. Pre-bellum 
writers have usually contented themselves with deprecating the 
practice of the Southern farmer by which he rendered himself 
dependent upon factors or merchants by pledging his crops 



294 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

months ahead of harvest in return for advances made by these 
factors, but they have told us little concerning the terms of the 
contracts or the extent of the practice. Later writers who have de- 
scribed the credit system have often overlooked the fact that this 
system existed previous to the war, and have seemed to indicate 
that liens on crops are a phenomenon which has been produced 
by the changes wrought in Southern agriculture since 1865. 

Yet agricultural credit is no new phenomenon in the South. 
The custom of V anticipating crops by engagements founded upon 
them " existed in South Carolina, according to Ramsay, even 
before the Revolution, when advances seem to have been made 
by the English merchants. The desolation in the South caused 
by the war for independence increased the planter's need of ob- 
taining credit, although the securing of this credit was rendered 
more difficult, "for the indulgence formerly granted to subjects 
in Carolina has seldom been extended to citizen planters." " The 
merchants, knowing the value of the staple commodities of Caro- 
lina, were very liberal of credit to the planters ; but on terms of 
enhanced price, as a security against loss and protracted pay- 
ments." And thus the obtaining of credit, which at first was a 
result of the necessity of beginning agriculture at all, continued 
either because of the lack of economy on the part of the planter, 
or because the dependence upon one crop, which often failed, 
compelled the cotton growers to pledge future crops in order to 
continue planting. "A few of the most shrewd and laborious 
(planters)," wrote Mr. James H. Lanman in 1841, "manage to 
accumulate large fortunes ; yet the liberal and free indulgence of 
much the greater part scarcely enable them to pay their expenses 
from year to year, and often, as is well known, the harvest of one 
year is, as it were, mortgaged for the expenses of the next, and 
those means which in the hands of some would be a source of 
vast profit, become in their hands a cause of mere competence." 

The chief borrowers in the cotton belt were the large planters. 
The small farmers in the hill country who raised their own pro- 
visions, and who bought little and sold little, had small use for the 
mechanism of credit, even if they had been considered desirable 
debtors. Negroes were usually sold on credit, even to the small 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 295 

farmer, however, provided he had already secured means to pur- 
chase one slave for cash. The possession of one slave seemed to 
be a guarantee that the owner would be able to pay for a second 
one. The desire to increase slave property was a frequent cause of 
the planter running in debt. " The majority of planters would 
always run in debt to the extent of their credit for negroes, what- 
ever was asked for them, without making any calculation of the 
reasonable prospect of their being able to pay their debts. When 
any one made a good crop, he would always expect that his next 
one would be better, and make purchases in advance upon such 
expectation. When they were dunned, they would attribute their 
inability to pay to accidental short crops, and always were going 
ahead risking everything in confidence that another year of luck 
would favor them and a big crop make all right." In addition to 
their slaves, it was customary for a large part of the planters to 
buy on credit the provisions and clothing for the negroes and the 
tools and stock needed on the plantation. The factors at the port 
towns where the cotton was sold were usually the money lenders, 
although sometimes the merchants of New York made advances 
on the growing crops. The merchants in the Southern cities sold 
their goods on credit, charging necessarily much higher prices 
than when they sold for cash. Even then the risks were so great 
that in 1855 the Southern Commercial Convention recommended 
the chambers of commerce and commission merchants of the 
Southern and Southwestern cities, "to adopt such a system of 
laws and regulations as will put a stop to the dangerous practice 
heretofore existing of making advances to planters in anticipation 
of their crops — a practice entirely at variance with everything like 
safety in business transactions and tending directly to establish the 
relations of master and slave between the merchant and planter by 
bringing the latter into the most abject and servile bondage " ; and 
they also recommended " the legislatures of the Southern and 
Southwestern states to pass laws making it a penitentiary offense 
for the planters to ask of the merchants to make such pecuniary 
advances." Very little seems to be known concerning the rates 
of interest or discount on loans made to the cotton planters pre- 
vious to the war. Olmsted was told that farming land in the 



296 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Mississippi Valley was usually sold on the installment plan, the 
purchaser paying down what he was able to pay and giving se- 
curity for the remainder. The rate of interest in such cases was 
10 per cent. If the planter was unable to pay when the notes 
became due, he was obliged to borrow money from the Jewish 
money lenders at New Orleans, paying often as much as 25 per 
cent per annum for the loan, and pawning his furniture, jewels, 
carpets, etc., as security. Mortgages on farming land were almost 
unknown at the South, the low value of land and the exhaus- 
tive system of culture making this form of security undesirable. 
A planter's wealth was gauged by the number of negroes he 
held, and not by the number of acres he owned. 

The crops then growing or yet to be planted became, therefore, 
almost the only security which could be furnished by the planter 
desiring to borrow money or purchase supplies. When a planter 
had prepared his ground for cotton, he would go to the factor at 
the nearest market, describe his land, and the number of acres 
he expected to plant. The factor, having satisfied himself of the 
truthfulness of the statement, would make the desired loan, taking 
a lien on the crop as security. The rates of interest on these 
loans varied considerably, according to the commercial integrity of 
the borrower, the fertility of the land, etc., but the rates were 
always high as compared with interest rates at the North. 
" Every person familiar with the condition of trade in the South- 
west," wrote a Southerner, " knows what an enormous tax is 
levied by factors on planters for the advances made the latter. 
Ten, twelve, fifteen or more per cent are the common rates of 
interest charged for these loans. Besides, the planter is placed 
completely in the power of the factor. The crop is often sold to 
satisfy the exigencies of the latter 's situation. This custom is- 
likewise most oppressive to the factor. It obliges him to keep up 
a large amount' of capital, and exposes him to a variety of haz- 
ardous risks." Many of the factors who had outstanding accounts 
with the planters at the outbreak of the war were completely 
bankrupted, owing to the inability of the latter to make good 
their promises of repayment. 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 297 

l< In the preparation of cotton for the market great advances 
had been made previous to i860. The original methods of gin- 
ning and packing were even more slovenly than the methods of 
tillage. The invention of the saw-gin and of the McCarthy roller 
gin revolutionized the methods of cleaning both the short- and 
long-staple cottons, but the methods of packing and shipping for 
many years lagged behind. During the operation of ginning no 
bags or boxes received the cotton, and oftentimes large quantities 
were thrown together until the inspectors were prepared »to ex- 
amine them. . . . There were no reinspectors of the cotton before 
it was deposited in the bag, in which the spinner would frequently 
find, in addition to a large supply of leaves and crushed seeds, 
potato skins, parts of old garments, and occasionally a jackknife." 

During the later years of cotton culture under slavery the short- 
staple cotton was put up in square bales and covered with jute or 
hemp bagging. Nearly all of the large planters had their own gin 
houses and presses, and the preparation of the cotton for market 
thus being carried on directly under the supervision of the planter 
or his manager was probably more carefully attended to than it 
has been in later years when the competition of ginning establish- 
ments has resulted in a cheapening of the cost of ginning at the 
expense of the quality of the work done. But the plantation 
presses did not sufficiently compress the bales for purposes of 
export, and on the cotton arriving at the port cities, the bales 
were still further compressed by steam compresses to about one- 
half their former size. "There is no sufficient reason," wrote 
Mr. Lyman, " why this neat and solid packing should not be done 
at the plantations, thus saving the planter an expense of from 
one to two dollars a bale now incurred at the shipping ports." 
Even after this second compression, the American bales were 
sent to Liverpool in a less neat and solid package than those 
from the East Indies. 

The changes wrought in the political, economic and social con- 
ditions of the South by the development of means of transporta- 
tion are even yet imperfectly understood, and consequently not 
fully appreciated even by historians. Many of these changes in 



298 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

methods of transportation are partly the cause and partly the 
effect of the spread of cotton culture. The early settlers in the 
back part of the Carolinas and Georgia were for the most part of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia stock. Between these people and the 
colonists of the low country " there were no ties of consanguinity, 
no identity of history, traditions or experience, no religious affin- 
ities, no personal acquaintance, no commercial relations." Be- 
tween the two sections there was very little intercourse previous to 
the Revolution. The middle region lay between them, a wilder- 
ness through which there were no roads practicable for wagons. 
The trade of the colonists in the back country was, therefore, 
carried on almost entirely with Northern cities, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore and Richmond. It is not improbable that the impor- 
tance of Philadelphia as a cotton market previous to 1790, as is 
evidenced by the establishment of roller gins there, even before 
the Revolution, is due to the carriage thither of small quantities 
of cotton produced by these early settlers in the back portions of 
the Carolinas. But the spread of cotton culture after 1793 made 
these old routes of trade impracticable and rendered necessary 
the establishment of means of communication and transportation 
between the back country and the coast region. Facilities for 
water transportation were first developed, and this was the usual 
method of sending cotton to market during the first half of the 
present century. River towns, such as Columbia, Cheraw, Cam- 
den, Hamburg, Augusta, Montgomery, Vicksburg, Natchez and 
Shreveport, were the chief markets for the inland cotton trade 
and the centers from which cotton was transported to the coast 
cities Charleston, Savannah, Mobile and New Orleans. Even 
the sending of cotton direct from the plantations to market was 
often by boat. Many of the large plantations were along the 
rivers, thus affording them an easy access to market. •'' Besides 
these ordinary conveyances, several novel methods were employed 
of moving produce to market. It is said that cotton was sent to 
Hamburg from the country near the upper Savannah by throwing 
the bales into the stream and letting them float with the current." 
In 1826 there were ten steamboats engaged in the cotton 
trade between Charleston and the towns of Savannah, Augusta, 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 299 

Hamburg, Georgetown, Cheraw and Columbia. These boats had 
an average capacity of 600 bales of 320 pounds each. The usual 
method, however, of transporting cotton on the rivers was by 
means of flatboats. These boats were managed by a "patroon" 
and five hands. They carried usually about no bales of cotton. 
The freights, including insurance, amounted to $1 per bale from 
Columbia or Camden to Charleston, and $1.75 from Augusta or 
Hamburg to Charleston. Transportation in this way was neces- 
sarily slow and expensive. A writer in 1831 says: 

The rich inhabitants of the back country of South Carolina and of those 
parts of North Carolina and Georgia which trade with Charleston are obliged 
at great expense to transport their produce and receive in return their supplies ; 
weeks and not infrequently months have elapsed before places, not more dis- 
tant in a direct line than one hundred and twenty miles, could effect their com- 
munication, and then and at all times with great expense and at no time with- 
out great risk of loss and great delay. 

The profits of the planter, or what ought to be his profits, are but too often 
consumed in the expense of transportation, and the merchant finds it impos- 
sible to calculate with that certainty which his operations require, the time he 
may expect arrivals or hear of his shipments having reached their points of 
destination. 

Those planters who did not live along a navigable stream were 
usually compelled to haul their cotton overland by wagon to 
market. Even those who had the opportunity to make use of the 
rivers as highways of commerce often preferred to send their 
cotton overland. Thus Mills tell us that, although the freight 
from Columbia to Charleston by way of the Congaree and Santee 
rivers was in 1821 only $1.50 per bale, "this route was so long 
and hazardous that shippers preferred to send their cotton by 
wagons at a cost of $3 per bale." 

The small planters often sold to dealers in the small towns 
who undertook to haul the cotton over the poor roads, sometimes 
one hundred and fifty miles, to where it could be sent by flatboats 
to cities on the coast. 

The era of railroad building began in the South with the con- 
struction of the Charleston and Hamburg railroad, which was 
begun in 1830 and completed in 1833. But although there was 
a gradual development of railroad building in the South between 



300 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

1834 and i860, progress in this direction was less rapid than in 
the North. In 1850 the Southern States, including Virginia and 
Kentucky, had less miles of railway than were possessed by the 
New England States, and in i860, there were but 9517 miles of 
railway in the Southern States, as compared with 11,114 miles 
in the North Central States. 

The railroads exercised an important influence on cotton grow- 
ing, not only in the fact that they furnished cheaper and more 
rapid transportation for cotton, but that they created local markets, 
stimulated interior buying and facilitated the deportation of ne- 
groes from the coast to the interior. " The railroads stimulated 
the extension of cotton culture and made Western provisions so 
cheap that the farmers neglected the production of food at home. 
By cheapening the transportation of corn and bacon to the cotton 
lands, and cheapening the carriage of cotton to the seaboard, an 
unaccustomed adjustment of prices came about, which led the 
farmers into that vicious semblance of economy of which the evil 
effects are still seen and felt throughout the states, whereby the 
independence and the substantial comforts of farm life are sacri- 
ficed to the pursuit of money returns from a large cotton crop. 

Although there were many attempts made by Southern agri- 
culturists and statisticians to determine what were the costs and 
profits of cotton raising, the results secured are not very satisfac- 
tory from a statistical point of view. Conditions of production 
varied not only according to the difference in locality, but within 
a single community they varied according to the size and manage- 
ment of the plantation. The large plantation with a superior or- 
ganization of slave labor, produced at a less expense than did the 
small plantation adjoining. Difference in the fertility of the soil, 
in character of the seasons, in facilities for marketing will occur 
to any one at first thought. Even on a single plantation it was 
difficult to estimate the average cost of raising cotton, if any other 
crops were cultivated, or to say what proportion of the expense 
was to be legitimately reckoned as costs of cotton raising. About 
1840, when planters were becoming alarmed lest India should 
become a successful rival of the Southern States as a cotton- 
producing country, there was a meeting of the " most distinguished 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 301 

and intelligent planters " to take - measures for counteracting these 
efforts which were being made by the East India Company. " It 
was then decided that so long as the American planters could 
get 8 cents (4d.) per pound for their cotton, delivered at the 
nearest market, they could afford to produce it, but that if a 
supply from any other quarter could be obtained for less than 
that sum, they must then turn their attention to the cultivation 
of other commodities." 

In 1849 several of the large planters on the Mississippi bottoms 
estimated that they could grow cotton for 6 cents a pound, and 
planters writing for De Boivs Review declared that when they 
were obliged to raise cotton for 5 cents, the business was ruin- 
ous. The smaller planters must have had still higher prices if 
they found production profitable. Except during the decade be- 
tween 1840 and 1850, cotton rarely sank below 10 cents a pound 
on the New York and Liverpool markets, and this was deemed 
sufficient, after deducting commissions and other marketing ex- 
penses, to enable the planter to make a profit. Ten cents seems, 
indeed, to have been considered the golden mean of cotton prices. 
If cotton sank below this figure its production became unprofit- 
able ; if it rose above 10 cents, labor became " too dear to increase 
production rapidly." 



THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
WEST DURING THE CIVIL WAR 

By Emerson D. Fite 
(From the Quarterly Journal of Econo7nics, Vol. XX, p. 259, November, 1905) 

ONE of the most remarkable features of the industrial and 
commercial conditions in the North during the Civil War 
was the steady growth of the agricultural states of the West. The 
passionate excitement of war and the deep interest in politics, 
which the present generation is wont to consider the only promi- 
nent characteristics of the time, after all absorbed but a part of the 
country's attention. There was a peaceful expansion westward, an 
agricultural development in those states comparable to that of the 
previous decade, which added enormously to the nation's resources 
and contributed largely to the final success of the North. With- 
out the war this development might, indeed, have been greater ; 
but its extent, in spite of the war, was marvellous. 

The leading agricultural states — Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
and Iowa — were in the midst of great development when the 
year 1861 opened. Notwithstanding the check caused by the 
panic of 1857, the advance of their farming interests in the pre- 
vious decade had been conspicuous, their agricultural area having 
increased 80 per cent and the value of their farms 270 per cent 
(from $277,000,000 to $1,027,000,000). Their combined wheat 
crop rose from 21,000,000 bushels in 1849 to 63,000,000 bushels 
in 1859, that of corn from 120,000,000 bushels to 230,000,000 
bushels, and that of oats from 20,000,000 to 38,000,000 bushels. 
This growth, more rapid than agricultural growth had ever been 
in any other section of the North, was in strong contrast to the 
gradually decreasing crops of the East. 

During the years of fighting there was continued advance. 
Large crops in i860 and 1861 were succeeded in 1862 by 

302 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 303 

the largest crops in the history of the country up to that time, 
when in the four states under consideration the wheat crop of 
83,000,000 bushels was 33^ per cent more than in 1859, that of 
oats 43,000,000 bushels, an advance of 15 per cent. With the 
exception of the corn crop of 1863, which was damaged by frosts, 
and the wheat crop of 1864, these figures were maintained, and 
in some respects surpassed, in 1863, 1864, and 1865. The same 
is true also for the North as a whole, according to the estimates 
of the Department of Agriculture. 

In no way, perhaps, is the steady progress better illustrated 
than by the grain shipments from the city of Chicago. The 
record of this city is marvellous. Starting in 1838 with a 
shipment of 78 bushels of wheat, and each year thereafter 
increasing her shipments, but never before i860 sending out 
over 10,000,000 bushels of wheat and wheat flour, this new city 
for each year of the war shipped, on the average, 20,000,000 
bushels of wheat and wheat flour. Her yearly corn exports, 
before i860 never above 11,000,000 bushels, averaged during 
the war 25,000,000 bushels. Of all kinds of grain her shipments 
in i860 were the largest to that date, — 31,000,000 bushels. But 
in 1 86 1 these mounted up to 50,000,000 bushels, to 56,000,000 
bushels in 1862, 54,000,000 bushels in 1863, 46,000,000 
bushels in 1864, and 52,000,000 bushels in 1865. So it was 
also for Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, and other lake ports, and 
for Cincinnati, though with no such phenomenal advances. 
The commerce of the Great Lakes, by which route over 90 
per cent of this grain was transported to Buffalo and other 
Eastern lake ports, was also very large, nearly twice as large 
as before 1861, while the grain receipts of Buffalo and New 
York and the business of the New York railroads and canals 
showed equal progress. 

The lake ports, especially Chicago, were undoubtedly profiting 
by the closing of the Mississippi River to New Orleans, for they 
gained most of the shipments from the interior which usually 
went to the Southern port, so that the increased shipments of 
Northern cities and the increased traffic of the Northern trans- 
portation routes do not exactly measure the growth of the crops. 



304 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

From 1850 to i860 New Orleans received on the average 
approximately 10,000,000 bushels of grain each year. If we say 
that all of this trade was diverted to the one city of Chicago, 
— an unreasonable assumption, — we see that it constituted only 
from one-third to one-half of the increase of Chicago's trade. 
The opening of the river in 1863 had no appreciable effect in 
starting traffic again southward, because marauders on both 
banks continued to make the route unsafe, and because the 
Westerners had come to appreciate the speed and directness of 
the Northern routes. 

It was a striking coincidence that the greater harvests and the 
loss of the river route southward were so fully anticipated by the 
railroad construction of the previous decade. In 1850 Indiana 
had 225 miles of railroads, Illinois no miles, Wisconsin 20 
miles, and Iowa none. In i860 the four states together had over 
6990 miles of road ready to accomplish the heavy tasks to be im- 
posed upon them. Whatever might be the increase of the crops, 
although the river was closed, there were ample facilities to 
take them to market. Seven new trunk lines from the South, 
West, and North centred in Chicago, whence three other trunk 
lines and the Lakes led eastward. This city, which in 1850 
celebrated the arrival of its first train, was entered during the last 
part of the war by ninety trains daily. Better preparation in these 
sections for the strain of war could hardly have been devised. 

At the beginning of the war many feared molestation of the 
crops ; but when with each succeeding year plenty filled the 
land, boastings and congratulations were Universal. That we were 
a great agricultural nation in a time of war few public teachers, 
speakers, or newspapers allowed the people to forget. It was 
fortunate that the source of our food supply was within our own 
borders and not in the Confederacy, and that it was never in- 
cluded within the theatre of war. With food plenty, the doubts 
and fears that so easily lend themselves to discontent in a time of 
public crisis had little place. 

Another effect of the abundant food supply, which has never 
yet been adequately set forth but which, nevertheless, was very 
important, was its influence on foreign countries. We were a 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 305 

granary for Great Britain and to a small extent for the Conti- 
nent, from which countries the Confederate States were en- 
deavoring to win recognition by pointing with pride to the fact 
that they were the largest source of the world's cotton supply. 
From 1850 to i860 the production of American cotton had 
increased 120 per cent, — from 2,450,000 bales to not quite 
5,400,000 bales, — that of wheat by less than 75 per cent, — 
i.e., from 100,000,000 bushels to 170,000,000 bushels. Further- 
more, while the export of wheat was practically stationary in the 
period, that of cotton rapidly increased. (In 1850 we exported 
635,381,604 pounds of cotton; in i860, 1,767,686,338 pounds, 
the increase being gradual. The largest exportation of wheat 
and wheat flour, 18 50-1 860, was (in 1857) 31,000,000 bushels. 
The average for the decade was about 20,000,000 bushels a year. 
In i860 it was 16,000,000 bushels.) 

The cotton-consuming countries of the world were so far de- 
pendent on the Southern staple that over 80 per cent of the 
cotton consumed in Great Britain from 185 1 to i860 came from 
the United States ; in i860, 75 per cent of that consumed on the 
Continent also came from America. But in the same period 
the dependence on American grain was very much less, since we 
shipped almost none at all to the Continent, and in almost every 
year were outstripped by Russia in shipments to Great Britain. 

What would be the effects of the war on these relations at once 
became a leading question in Europe, and it was generally as- 
sumed that there would be a great decrease in the receipts of both 
American staples, of grain as well as of cotton. 

With the declaration of the blockade of the Southern ports by 
the United States one part of the expectation was fulfilled. The 
foreign factories could get little or no American cotton, and began 
to shut down or run but part time. The 2,580,700 bales received 
in Great Britain from America in i860 fell to 1,841,600 bales in 
1 86 1, 72,000 bales in 1862, 132,000 bales in 1863, 198,000 
bales in 1864, and 462,000 bales in 1865 ; but, on account of the 
enlarged importations from other fields, — Brazil, Egypt, West 
India, East India, China, Japan, Turkey, and Asia Minor, — the 
yearly consumption did not fall off as much as did the American 



306 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

imports. The familiar story of the distress among the unemployed 
British operatives need not here be retold. In the consumption of 
cotton on the Continent, France took the lead, consuming about 
one-quarter as much as Great Britain. Germany was second, with 
Russia, Holland, Spain, and the other minor countries and ports 
following. In i860, as has just been stated, three-fourths of this 
cotton came from America, to disappear practically with the open- 
ing of the war ; but here again, as in the case of Great Britain, 
on account of increased importations from other countries, the 
yearly consumption did not fall off equally with American impor- 
tations. Roughly speaking, the different Continental countries suc- 
ceeded throughout the war in getting for use 50 per cent of the 
usual amount. There was distress among the French operatives, 
as in England, but not to so great an extent. 

Great Britain's wheat crop (exclusive of the crop of the islands 
of the British seas), which in 1858 and 1859 averaged 16,000,000 
quarters annually, in i860 fell to 13,135,124 quarters, in 1861 to 
11,078,948 quarters, in 1862 to 12,271,546 quarters, in 1863 to 
13,957,554 quarters. In 1864 it rose to 17,922,048 quarters. 
The average yearly price per quarter in i860, 1861, and 1862 
rose to 53s. 3d., 55s. 4d., and 55s. 5d. For three successive 
years the country's grain crops were failures, and she was forced 
to import twice as much grain as usual. In the emergency it was 
the United States, at war, that supplied the new demand, — the 
same United States that had cut off the cotton. Great Britain 
was astonished. In 1861, the year when American cotton ceased 
to arrive, in Great Britain, the British imports of American wheat 
and wheat flour were 36,000,000 bushels, three times more than 
ever before; in 1862, 37,000,000 bushels. The lowest point 
during the war was in 1864, — 20,000,000 bushels. Russia and 
Germany were the other great granaries of Great Britain, but the 
shipments of wheat and wheat flour from the one country to Great 
Britain actually fell off in 1861, 1862, and 1863 ; while those of 
the other increased, and that but slightly, only in one year, — 1862. 

French importations to Great Britain in wheat and wheat flour, 
usually ranking next after those from Germany and Russia, in 
the first three years of the war fell off enormously, being only 25 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 307 

per cent of what they were in i860, for the sufficient reason that 
France also, along with Great Britain and all of southern Europe, 
suffered crop reverses in 1861. The French crop in this year 
was 25,765,000 quarters, as compared with an average yearly crop 
of 32,000,000 quarters in 1858, 1859, and i860. Importations, 
which in 1858, 1859, and i860 had averaged about 400,000 
quarters, suddenly rose to almost 5,400,000 quarters in 1861. 
Of these increased importations from one-third to one-half came 
from the United States. The American shipments to France 
before 1861 were practically nothing; but in the year following 
the poor harvests they were 10,000,000 bushels of wheat and 
wheat flour, 5,000,000 bushels the next year. 

Our Northern press and the public watched with keen interest 
these foreign shipments of grain. They noted that, when the 
British and Continental crops were poor, our own chanced to be 
unprecedentedly abundant ; and they universally believed that these 
shipments played a large part in preventing foreign recognition 
of the Confederacy. The reasoning was most frequently applied 
to Great Britain, inasmuch as Americans in general were well 
acquainted with the situation there. American grain was more 
important to the British than American cotton, reasoned the 
Northerners. If Great Britain attempted to secure more of the 
latter by breaking the blockade, her receipts of the former would 
be materially lessened by the resulting war with the United States. 
This deficiency other nations were not in a position to make 
up any more quickly than that in cotton ; and the resulting very 
high prices of food, going far beyond the prevailing high prices 
of 1862, and involving the whole kingdom, would be far more 
serious than a partial loss of work in a single district. Our large 
American harvests, therefore, were peculiarly fortunate, for, in 
addition to supplying our wants at home, they affected powerfully 
our international relations. 

The same considerations apply to our relations with France, 
though not so forcibly. The French crops, in the first place, were 
poor but in a single year, not, as in Great Britain, for three years. 
The French importations were not nearly so large as the British, 
and prices in France did not go so high. Moreover, the cotton 



308 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

industry in France, one-quarter as large as in Great Britain, oc- 
cupied a comparatively small position in the nation. But, in this 
connection, we must not consider France by herself : she was a 
member of a combination, more or less strong, desirous of recog- 
nizing the Confederacy ; and this combination, as a whole, could 
not dispense with American grain. 

The shipments abroad had a pronounced reaction, also, on this 
country ; for in the early part of the war, when we were producing 
more than was necessary for our own wants, and when, therefore, 
our home markets would naturally have been overstocked and 
prices for the farmers very low, the strong foreign demand tended 
to remove the surplus and prevent that disappointing result. 

The other leading activities of the Western farmers, — hog, 
cattle, and sheep raising, — were also flourishing. According to 
the Cincinnati Price Current, the number of hogs packed in all 
the West, which never before the war had been above 2,500,000, 
in 1 862-1 863 rose to 4,000,000, and in 1 863-1 864 was 3,000,000. 
This increase was represented most graphically by the record of 
Chicago, where the number jumped from 151,339 in 1859-1860 
to 970,264 in 1 863-1 864, and to a less degree by that of Cincin- 
nati, St. Louis, and other cities. In 1862 Chicago outstripped 
Cincinnati, and wrested from her the title " porkopolis of the 
West." Most of the packing was done in the cities, where the 
industry was fast becoming centralized, but a part of it was still 
done in the small towns and in the country. Despite the progress 
of packing, however, we are informed by the statisticians of the 
time that the number of hogs raised each year was no greater 
than in i860. The change is to be explained rather by the fact 
that the farmers sent to the market more of their stock than usual. 
Cattle raising was normal, and cattle packing was in its infancy. 

In the nation at large the progress of sheep raising was most 
remarkable, inasmuch as wool was the most important substitute 
for cotton. The production of wool increased gradually from i860, 
when it amounted to 60,000,000 pounds, to 1865, when the total 
production was 140,000,000 pounds ; while in the latter year 
there were 32,000,000 sheep in the North, — double the number of 
i860. The Western states shared the progress along with all the 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 309 

North. Illinois, the leading agricultural state, in four years more 
than trebled her number of sheep. Ohio, the leading wool state, 
doubled hers. " No branch of business increased more rapidly 
than the domestic wool trade " ; it grew with " gigantic strides." 
Everywhere the wool-growers were very energetic. Their conven- 
tions, new associations, and jealous rivalry with the wool manu- 
facturers over the tariff are characteristic features of the times. In 
1865 the National Wool-growers' Association was formed. 

So far as crops and herds and flocks are concerned, the evi- 
dences of great material prosperity in the West are unmistakable. 
There was unusual activity in all branches of agriculture, and, on 
the whole, unusually large crops and large herds and flocks. Other 
factors, such as prices and freight rates, the growing use of agri- 
cultural machinery, the prosperity of agricultural fairs, increase in 
population, the occupation of new lands, and public agitation in 
favor of increased transportation facilities furnished testimony to 
the same effect. But in the very beginning of the war two con- 
trary factors were very strong, — the crash of the wildcat banks 
and high freight rates. 

Many banks in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana had, as the only 
security of their circulating notes, the bonds of the border and 
slave states. These bonds secession sent on a wild career of 
decline, which grew worse and worse after the opening of actual 
hostilities. Deprived in this way of the means of redeeming their 
notes, many of the Western banks, especially the small ones in 
the country, closed their doors ; and the bonds were sold at auction 
for the benefit of the note-holders. If we say that, on the average, 
these were sold for 80 cents on the dollar, which is a high 
estimate, the loss to the people of Illinois, where the bank-note 
circulation was $12,000,000, was over $2,000,000. Eighty-nine 
of the no banks of the state were ruined ; 39 in Wisconsin, 27 
in Indiana. These failures of the small country banks fell heavily 
on the farmers. 

The losses occasioned by high freight rates were just as wide- 
spread as those due to poor banking. The enormous grain 
shipments of 1861, accompanied by the closing of so many routes 
seaward, — the Mississippi River, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 



310 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and, with the coming of the winter, the Great Lakes, — found the 
railroads and other transportation lines unprepared. They were 
new, and had never handled heavy traffic. Much freight had to 
be turned away, and freight rates went up with a bound. The 
aggregate freight rate from Chicago to New York via Buffalo, by 
lake and canal, for a bushel of wheat rose suddenly from $0.1725 
in July until it reached $0.3894 in October of the same year, — 
over 1 00 per cent increase, whereas in the corresponding three 
months of 1 860 the customary rise in the autumn had been but a 
little over 66^ per cent. The West was frantic, but helpless before 
the transportation lines ; for, while the freight rates advanced so 
very fast, the price of spring wheat in New York in the same 
time, — July to October, — went only from 72 cents to $1.15, — 
50 per cent increase in the wholesale price paid to farmers, to be 
set over against the 100 per cent increase in freight rates. Press 
and public and state legislatures were loud in complaint. Large 
crops were of no avail to farmers if transportation lines took all 
the profits. 

The sequel is important. In October, 1864, after the depreci- 
ation of paper money had been constantly raising prices in general 
for almost three years, the freight on a bushel of wheat, Chicago 
to New York by Buffalo, via lake and canal, was only $0.27, 
almost $0.12 less than in October, 1861, and in not a single 
month from 1861 to 1864 was the figure of October, 1861, again 
reached. On the other hand, the price of a bushel of spring wheat 
in New York in the same interval (October, 1861, to October, 
1864) jumped from $1.15 to $2.35 in July, 1864, $1.85 in Octo- 
ber, and $2.28 in January, 1865. Similarly, between the same two 
points over the same route, the freight on a bushel of corn 
increased, July to October, 1861, from $0.1581 to $0.3563 ; while 
the price per bushel of corn in New York advanced only from 
$0.46 to $0.54. But in October, 1864, the same freight was 
$0.2381, while the price per bushel was $1.56 in July, 1864; 
$1.58 in October; $1.86 in January, 1865. Again, in the fall 
of 1 86 1 the highest price paid for a live-stock car, Chicago to 
Buffalo, was $95 ; in the fall of 1864, only $130 for the largest 
cars, $105 for smaller ones. But the price of live cattle in the 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 311 

latter year was 100 per cent more than in 1861, and of live 
hogs 200 per cent more. Thus we arrive at a most interesting 
and important result : the prices of agricultural products in 1 864 
and the first part of 1865 were 100 per cent to 200 per cent 
more than in 1861, while freight rates for grain were less than 
in 1 86 1, and those for live stock advanced but slightly. This 
rise in farm products was greater, and lasted much longer, than 
the rise in freight rates. Never had the products of the farm so 
great a cash value. For their crops the farmers were getting 
not only the increased nominal value which an inflated currency 
produced, but in addition the part of this increase, and more, 
which naturally would have been added to the freight rates. This 
remarkable result, following two good years in 1862 and 1863, 
was rich recompense for the losses of agriculture in 1861, and 
a cause of great buoyancy and prosperity. The amount, of debts 
and farm mortgages paid off during the war was vast. 

The use of labor-saving machinery on the farms had already 
begun when the war opened, but was largely extended during 
the struggle. Mowers and reapers were yet new ; only on the 
largest farms of the West were they common. The wheat drill 
was not common in any section. As soon, however, as men 
began to go to war, the increasing use of new labor-saving 
machinery was as striking a feature of farming as were the large 
harvests. The new devices were necessary to make up for the 
scarcity of laborers. But for them, so we are assured from 
many sources, a large part of the crops could not have been 
gathered. In 1864 over 70,000 mowers and reapers were manu- 
factured, — twice as many as in 1862, and many more than in 
any year before. The manufacturers could not supply the demand. 
But a small proportion of these were sold out of the United 
States. The horse-rake was likewise recognized as an efficient 
labor-saving device, and its use was rapidly extended. Many 
new harrows, grain drills, corn planters, and steam threshers 
were put on the market. At the agricultural fairs, both state 
and county, which, with some diminution in 1861, were held 
throughout the war, attended by the usual crowds, and meeting 
with the usual successes and failures, the exhibitions of the new 



312 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

machinery afforded the chief attraction, and aroused the greatest 
possible interest. Only one exhibit compared with them in 
popularity, — another comparatively new labor-saving device, — 
the sewing machine. 

There was definite increase of population in all the agricul- 
tural states, as shown by the census and by the school statistics. 
Illinois, by the United States census in i860, contained 1,711,915 
people; in 1865, by the state census, 2,141,510, — a gain of 
430,000. The number of scholars of school age rose from 
472,000 to 580,000; the number of teachers increased by 2500. 
Wisconsin in the five years gained 90,000 population, 47,000 
children of school age, and 460 teachers. Minnesota, the newest 
state, gained 78,000 people, and showed an increase of 900 
teachers. Iowa gained 180,000 people; Kansas, 35,000; and 
Nebraska, 30,000. Aside from natural increase, one source of 
the increase in population was foreign immigration, attracted 
partly through the active personal efforts of agents in Europe, 
sent out by states, railroads, and private individuals, partly through 
descriptive pamphlets, which were sent broadcast. From 1861 to 
1865 some 45,000 immigrants, on landing in New York, con- 
tinued their journey to Illinois; 23,000, to Wisconsin; 7000, 
to Iowa; and 5000, to Minnesota. There were many refugees 
from the border and slave states, especially in Illinois. Although 
it is impossible to measure this movement, numerous references 
in the press and in the reports of railroad presidents leave no 
doubt that it was strong. In 1863 it was reported that one-third 
of the land sales of the Illinois Central Railroad were to these 
Southern settlers. 

Then there was immigration from other states, especially from 
the East, where there was a pronounced tendency towards de- 
population of country districts and small towns. In New York 
State, out of a total of 948 cities and towns, there were 505 
that decreased in population from i860 to 1865, 463 of which 
had shown an increase in i860 over 1855. In Massachusetts, 
out of a total of 385 cities and towns, 197 showed a decrease 
in 1865 over i860, and 102 of these 197 had shown an increase 
in i860 over 1855. The same conditions existed in Rhode 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 313 

Island. Some of this drift of population away from these rural 
districts of the Eastern states was westward. The secretary of 
state of the state of New York, impressed by the shifting popu- 
lation of that state, sent out circulars inquiring the probable 
causes of the changes ; and in about 230 replies received we 
find that 65 towns attributed their loss to emigration, chiefly to 
the West. Newspapers and railroad reports add their testimony 
to the same effect. St. Paul (Minnesota), a typical town of 
13,000 in the growing sections of Minnesota, in the five years 
from 1 86 1 to 1865 received 2200 persons from other states. 

Another strong indication of the growth of population in the 
agricultural West was the constant occupation of new lands in 
every year of war. The Illinois Central Railroad, in the counties 
bordering along its lines, in i860 sold 53,841.70 acres ; in 1861, 
102,247 acres ; in 1862, 87,599 acres ; in 1863, 221,578 acres ; in 
1864, 264,422 acres; in 1865, 154,252 acres. These heavy sales 
were, moreover, not to speculators, in large amounts, but to a large 
number of holders, in small amounts. In 1862 and 1863 approx- 
imately 6000 buyers, many of them from the Southern and border 
states, took an average of less than 60 acres each. During the 
whole war the counties along the line of the railroad grew in popu- 
lation 430,000. In other states, — for example, in Minnesota, — 
the railroads were actively disposing of their lands. 

The state and government lands were also filling up. Wiscon- 
sin sold 340,000 acres of school lands, swamp lands, and univer- 
sity lands; Minnesota, 155,000 acres of school lands. Under the 
Homestead Act, by the terms of which the general government 
gave away to actual settlers (not to speculators), for a nominal fee, 
farms of 160 acres each, 140,988 acres were taken up in the 
various states and territories from January 1 to July 1, 1863 ; 
1,261,592.61 acres from July 1, 1863, to July 1, 1864 ; and 
1,160,532.32 acres from July 1, 1864, to July 1, 1865, — more 
than 21,600 farms occupied in two and a half years by permanent 
settlers. Of these homesteads 7864 were in Minnesota; 221 1, in 
Wisconsin; 711, in Iowa; 1755, in Nebraska; 31 15, in Michi- 
gan ; 2067, in Kansas ; and a smaller number, in several other 
states and territories. The government disposed of much land in 



314 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

other ways. There were cash sales amounting to one-half of the 
homestead entries, large gifts to the veterans of the Revolutionary 
War, the 'War of 1812, and the Mexican War, and gifts to various 
railroads and to agricultural colleges. 

Two contrary movements, tending to reduce population in the 
West, must not be overlooked, — a further migration to the newly 
opened mines west of the Missouri River and the formation of 
armies. In every year of the war there was overland travel across 
the plains to Colorado, where gold was discovered in 1858 ; to 
Nevada, where silver was discovered in i860 ; and to Idaho, where 
gold was discovered in 1863. The excitement in 1863 and 1864 in 
Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois, over the discoveries in Idaho may be 
taken as typical. Maps, suggested routes, and descriptive articles 
abounded in the newspapers of St. Louis, Chicago, and other 
cities ; and when the spring of 1 864 opened, hundreds of prairie 
schooners started overland westward, and scores of boats ascended 
the Missouri River. On a single day in the early summer 420 
wagons were observed to cross the Missouri River at four different 
points in Nebraska. This represented 2000 people. In a letter 
from Denver the readers of the Boston Journal were informed that 
10,000 people were on the road between the Missouri River and 
Denver, all bound for Idaho. A certain judge, journeying from 
Fort Kearney to St. Joseph, declared that on no day was he out 
of sight of wagons, on one day he met 400 wagons. It was cer- 
tainly a strong movement, but there were special reasons for it 
aside from the gold fever : first, the disturbed conditions in 
Missouri, torn as the state was by the fierce struggles of radicals 
and conservatives, and harassed by bushwhackers ; and, second, 
the approach of the draft. It is significant that the governor of 
Iowa assumed by proclamation to prohibit any leaving that state 
until after the draft. The rush to Colorado and Nevada earlier 
was similar. In i860, one year after the excitement in Colorado 
began, the census takers found 32,227 people in the territory. 
Her estimated population in 1864 was 75,000. Nothing accurate 
measures the migration to Nevada, although it was roughly esti- 
mated that 30,000 went there in 1 86 1 . Thus through the war there 
was a continued migration away from the leading farming sections. 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 315 

All the states and territories we are considering furnished 
men for the armies. Up to December 1, 1864, Illinois raised 
197,000 soldiers ; Iowa, 70,000 up to December 31, 1864 ; Wis- 
consin, 75,000 up to December 31, 1864. 

And yet, despite this drain of men, the West grew. Statistics 
of population, immigration, and the sale of new lands furnish a 
body of evidence that cannot be gainsaid. They show the arrival 
of new people, the making of new farms, a continued progress in 
Western agriculture while war was raging in the South. It was 
the new settlers, aided in part by labor-saving machinery, who 
reaped the usual crops and the annual increase thereto, and 
clinched the prosperity of the West. 

A further illustration of the growth of the West is to be seen 
in the sway of the Western markets over the rival commercial 
cities of the East. The chief aim of the seaboard cities, in their 
attempts to extend their trade, was to secure improved transporta- 
tion facilities westward. New York, by the construction of the 
Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, secured new connections 
with the lake route at Cleveland, and also with Cincinnati and 
the Southwest. In a great ship-canal convention, attended by 
two thousand people and presided over by the Vice-President of 
the United States, New York joined her interests with Chicago 
in memorializing Congress to improve, for military and commer- 
cial reasons, the Illinois and New York canals. This she was led 
to do by Chicago's threat to send her grain seaward over the 
Canadian and St. Lawrence route. Philadelphia completed a new 
railroad to Erie, to compete with the new Atlantic and Great 
Western, and, in opposition to the Chicago-New- York canal 
schemes, favored the improvement of the Ohio River. She also 
secured new connections with Cincinnati and Chicago. Boston, 
with only one road to the West, endeavored to divert the termi- 
nus of the Grand Trunk from Portland to herself, to tap that road 
at Ogdensburg, New York, to divert the Erie Canal traffic at 
Albany by completing the Hoosac Tunnel, and to build a new 
road to the terminus of the Erie at Newburgh, New York. The 
obvious explanation of the great public interest in these and 
similar transportation projects is that the West appealed to all as 



316 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a valuable market. There was, of course, the desire to find a new 
market to take the place of the lost Southern trade, but in this 
search the transportation lines would not have been so eager as 
they were to reach out to the West if the West had not been 
prosperous. 

To this survey there is but one possible conclusion. In the 
middle and last part of the war Western farmers enjoyed vigorous 
prosperity ; there was steady progress in the size of the crops, in 
the extent of the cultivated area, and in population ; profits were 
normal in the middle of the struggle, and in the last part of it 
extraordinarily high. The Westerners themselves claimed pros- 
perity for their section, and the business interests of the East, 
in their endeavors to expand, recorded their belief in the same 
prosperity. 

[Great credit must be given to the national government for its wise and far- 
seeing legislation in favor of Western interests. In 1862 the Department of 
Agriculture was taken away from the jurisdiction of the Patent Office, where 
it was pinched and inefficient, and set up as an independent bureau. There 
were the Homestead Act and the Agricultural Land Grant Act, and an act in 
encouragement of immigration. Colorado, Arizona, Dakota, Nevada, Idaho, 
and Montana were organized as territories, and Kansas and Nevada were set 
up as states. Colorado and Nebraska refused statehood. Rich government 
subsidies were guaranteed to the Union Pacific. Railroad, with its branches in 
Kansas and Nebraska, and also to the Northern Pacific. In every year of the 
war armed forces gave protection from the Indians. 

Mitchell, in "History of the Greenbacks " (p. 388), says, " It is safe to con- 
clude from these figures that the farmers of the loyal states were among the un- 
fortunate producers whose products rose in price less than the majority of other 
articles, and that from this standpoint they were losers rather than gainers by 
the paper currency." " It seems very doubtful whether farmers, as. a whole, 
did not lose more than they gained because of the price disturbances." This 
view is based on a study of but a single factor, and certainly must be changed 
by study of the other factors bearing on the situation. 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE 
UNITED STATES, 1900-1910 

By J. L. Coulter 

From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXVII, No. I, 
November, 191 2) 

ONE of the most remarkable changes which took place in the 
United States during the nineteenth century was the ex- 
traordinary expansion of agriculture. An entire continent was 
seized, the former inhabitants were dispossessed, and the land 
was divided among a new people and brought into general use. 
It seems impossible- that this should have been accomplished in so 
short a time, and that it was accomplished will be set down as one 
of the marvels of all time. It is not my purpose, however, to dwell 
at length upon the extent of the movements of the last century, 
nor is it my purpose to go into detail with respect to the rapid- 
ity with which the changes took place. Inasmuch as the changes 
of the nineteenth century have already been presented to the pub- 
lic in many forms and are probably better known than those of the 
twentieth century, I propose to give most attention to the agricul- 
tural development of the first decade of the twentieth century. 

Suffice it to say in opening that the very rapid movement 
looking toward the extension or expansion of agriculture into all 
parts of the country during the last century came almost to a 
standstill with the close of the century. The area available for 
agricultural purposes was very largely occupied between 1800 and 
1900. It is true that there is still a large amount of land which 
must be made available, and the agricultural industry will continue 
to expand. Land now thought unavailable for agriculture will 
soon be found to be available or will be made so. Water will be 
drained from the land where there is too much, and carried to the 

3*7 



318 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

land where there is not enough ; stones will be carried away ; and 
stumps will be torn out. Land which is now thought to be too 
sandy or too gravelly will be brought into use by new scientific 
methods. Land which is now thought to be worn-out will be 
brought into bearing again. Some land which is now in forests 
will be used for agricultural purposes. In these and various 
other ways the agricultural area will expand during the twenti- 
eth century. But this expansion, when compared with the move- 
ment of the last century, will be of a different kind, and it will be 
small, indeed will be insignificant. The change in methods of 
farming, however, may be greater during the present century than 
during the last. 

In proof of the above statement I wish to submit briefly some 
of the statistics gathered at the Census of 19 10 and compare 
them with those gathered at the Census of 1900. The increase 
in acreage of land in farms during the decade amounted to only 
4.8 per cent. The increase averaged approximately 4,000,000 
acres per year. On the other hand, the increase during the thirty 
years before 1900 was almost 15,000,000 acres per year. This 
statement in itself is sufficient evidence of the fact that the high 
tide was reached before the close of the last century, and that the 
expansion since 1900 has been and doubtless will continue to be 
comparatively small. 

Before leaving this phase of the subject attention should be 
called to the fact that although the movement doubtless will be 
slow, there is room for it to continue over a long period of time, 
depending on the needs of the people, scientific progress, and in- 
itiative displayed. Although the movement during the last century 
was rapid, only 44.1 per cent of the land area of continental 
United States was actually included in farms in 1900. In 19 10 
this had increased to only 46.2 per cent. Thus, between 1900 
and 19 10, 2.1 per cent of the entire land area of the country was 
brought into farms. By quoting these figures I do not mean to 
leave the impression that all of the other 53.8 per cent can ever 
be brought into farms. This represents the land in mines, the 
mountain areas, the land occupied by cities, towns, and villages, 
the railroad rights of way, the public highways, deserts, swamps, 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 319 

and forests. Much of this land, however, can be made available 
for agriculture and much will be brought into use. During the 
last century it was possible for the movement to be rapid because 
special knowledge and advanced scientific principles were un- 
necessary. Natural fertility of the soil, plenty of land available, 
and advantageous climatic conditions made rapid advance possible. 
The movement of the twentieth century must be very different 
from that of the nineteenth. 

To say that the amount of land in farms increased very slowly 
during the last ten years, and that the amount of land easily 
available has been reduced to a very low ebb does not mean that 
further agricultural development is limited to the bringing of new 
land into farms. Much of the land which is at the present time 
included in the farms of the United States has never been im- 
proved. The census reports for 1900 showed that only 49.4 per 
cent, or slightly less than one-half, of all of the land in farms was 
improved. In other words, only 21.8 per cent of the total land 
area of the United States was reported as improved at that time. 
It would seem strange if only one-fifth of the total land area of the 
United States could be actually used for agricultural purposes. It 
may be noted, in passing, that much of the unimproved land is 
also used for agricultural purposes, inasmuch as it is used more 
or less for grazing. Yet the total income from the use of this 
unimproved land is very small. It would seem that the farmers 
of the United States, inasmuch as they were free to choose the 
best land available at the time they became farmers and inasmuch 
as they have now looked over the entire country, would choose 
land which could be most readily improved, and therefore it is 
very likely that the lands now in farms in the United States are 
in the sections most adapted to agriculture. It is, therefore, 
reasonable to conclude that much of the development of the 
twentieth century must turn to improving land already in farms 
but which in 1900 was woodland or other unimproved land. I 
have already noted that during the first ten years of the new 
century the increase in acreage of all land in farms was only 
4.8 per cent. During this same period, however, the increase 
in improved land in farms was 15.4 per cent. Assuming that 



320 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

only 15.4 per cent of the land brought into farms during the 
decade was improved during that time, it is clear that nearly 
58,000,000 acres of land which was in farms but unimproved at 
the beginning of the century was improved between 1900 and 19 10. 
In 19 10 the improved land in farms represented 25.1 per cent, 
or about one-fourth of the total land area of the United States, 
and represented 54.4 per cent, or slightly more than one-half, of 
all land in farms. It is reasonable to believe that as we proceed 
in the new century, much of the woodland and other unimproved 
land in farms, situated as it is in the most favorable farming 
regions of the United States, will be improved and developed. 

Attention was called above to the fact that in 1900 only 49.4 
per cent, or slightly less • than one-half, of all land in farms, or 
only about one-fifth of the land area of the United States, was 
reported as improved. The census of 1900 showed that in 1899 
only 283,218,280 acres of the improved land were devoted to 
crops for which it was possible to secure a statement of acreage 
reports. Thus in 1899 dnly 68.3 per cent of the improved land 
in farms was actually used for cropping purposes. In other 
words, only 33.8 per cent of all land in farms was reported to be 
in cultivated crops. This was only 14.9 per cent of the total 
land area of the country. The census of 1910 presents a corre- 
sponding report. In 1909 only 311,293,382 acres of land were 
reported as actually in crops for which acreage reports were se- 
cured. The crops with acreage reports, therefore, occupied only 
16.4 per cent of the total land areas; 35.4 per cent of the total 
land in farms ; and 65.1 per cent of the total improved land. 

The question necessarily arises as to the use made of improved 
land not accounted for in 1909 and 1899. These statistics have 
been criticized, it being contended that much land was reported 
as improved which should in fact be reported as unimproved. 
Having been intimately associated from its beginning with the 
census of agriculture taken in 19 10, but with no desire to defend 
it if it should not be defended, I wish to call attention to the 
fact that in 1909 the area reported as improved, but for which 
no crops were specified, must have existed in the form reported 
in order to represent current conditions. In the first place, no 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 321 

acreage report was secured for vineyards and orchards. Without 
attempting to make an absolute estimate of the probable number 
of acres of improved land devoted to these branches of agricul- 
ture, it is easy to show that at least 8,000,000 acres of land, 
probably 10,000,000 acres, were used for these purposes in 1909. 
Much more important than the land occupied by fruit and nut 
trees and vines is the very large improved area in pastures. In 
the northeastern part of the United States especially, where the 
farmers have learned to rotate their crops and where the live- 
stock industry is important, improved pasture land is an impor- 
tant feature of the average farm. It is my belief that in a large 
part of the country the improved land not reported in specified 
crops is largely used as improved pasture land. In other parts of 
the country, where rotation and diversified agriculture have not 
been introduced, it is very common to leave land lying fallow 
after it has been cropped four or five years in succession. This 
land is reported as improved although not actually in use in 1909. 
In addition to the vineyards and orchards it is easy to account 
for about 20,000,000 acres of land in the house yards, barn yards, 
and lanes of the farms of this country. Even this estimate allows 
only 3 acres for each farm. 

One of the movements of the present century must be a more 
complete utilization of the improved land. Land lying fallow 
must be brought into constant use ; land now reported as im- 
proved pasture must be made more productive, and it may even 
be part of the movement to do away with improved pasture land 
in due course of time, inasmuch as larger quantities of product 
could be raised on the same land and fed to the animals in an- 
other way ; and woodland and other land not improved must be 
converted into good pasture land. 

The expansion in agriculture during the twentieth century will 
therefore be in marked contrast to the expansion during the 
nineteenth century. During the last century, as noted above, the 
great movement was to the West, — the ordinary course was to 
locate a piece of land which required comparatively little labor 
to bring it into use, claim it, and convert it into a farm. The 
movement during the twentieth century will be along four distinct 



322 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

lines, each different from the movement of the nineteenth century. 
Briefly, the first of these will be to make farms out of land not 
now in farms by draining wet places, irrigating dry places, pull- 
ing stumps, moving stones, and the like. The second will be 
somewhat similar to the first. It will be to improve the wood- 
land and other unimproved land now in farms by the processes 
noted above. The third will be to put into active and more 
constant use the land already reported as improved. . This means 
the elimination of summer fallow and better utilization of other 
land reported as improved but not accounted for in the report of 
specific crops. The fourth, unlike the third, will be the move- 
ment towards more intensive cultivation, better farm methods, 
and better organization of the farm work. 

Now the four movements which I have indicated above as pos- 
sible and, indeed, as necessary, if the food supply of the United 
States is to be maintained at its present level during the twenti- 
eth century, have already begun. But they are so much slower 
than the increase of' population that agriculture has fallen far 
behind and is at the present time falling further and further 
behind. There is no question in my mind that this failure to 
keep pace with the general industrial movement of the country 
is one of the most important causes of the high cost of living 
so much talked about at the present time. Unless some of the 
movements indicated above progress with much greater rapidity 
than now, the high cost of living will go even higher. 

When the old movement stopped, when the frontier had dis- 
appeared, when the people commenced to say to themselves that 
there was practically no more free land, they turned their atten- 
tion more and more towards other activities. They turned to 
manufacturing, to transportation, to the trades, and to the pro- 
fessions: This fact is well known to all who have observed closely, 
and can also be demonstrated statistically. The actual extent of 
the movement should be briefly set down in order that the entire 
situation may be made clear. During the first ten years of the 
present century the number of farms in the United States in- 
creased 10.9 per cent. This was clearly due to the splitting up 
of many large farms ; since, as already noted, the amount of land 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 323 

in farms increased only 4.8 per cent. Further, this increase of 
10.9 per cent in the number of farms accounts very largely for 
the increased acreage of improved land in farms (15.4 per cent), 
as also the increased acreage of land in crops (9.9 per cent). In 
contrast to the increase in the number of farms, the increase in 
the rural population was 11.2 per cent. It would appear that the 
increase in the population of towns and villages with less than 
2500 inhabitants was not much greater than the increase in the 
number of farms. In contrast to this comparatively small increase 
in the number of farms and in the rural population, the increase in 
the urban population amounted to 34.8 per cent. With these facts 
before us, it is easy to see that agriculture had reached practically 
its limit in 1900, so far as following the old method of expansion 
was concerned, and also that the four movements to which I re- 
ferred had not gotten well enough started to keep pace with the 
increase in population which is rapidly concentrating in cities. 

During the nineteenth century the farmers produced very much 
more than the people of the United States could consume, and 
the surplus was shipped to foreign countries. As agriculture 
developed less rapidly and as the proportion of the people who 
lived in cities increased more rapidly, the exportation of the raw 
materials of agriculture necessarily decreased. We have now 
reached a stage in the history of this country when farmers in 
average years do not produce much more of the raw materials 
used for food, beverage, and clothing than is needed within the 
country. In poor years the production may not in the future 
equal the demands of the consumers. In exceptionally good 
years it will be possible to export a considerable amount of raw 
material or reserve it for the bad years to follow. I think it is 
very doubtful whether the four new movements towards agricul- 
tural development which have been indicated above will be more 
than sufficient to keep pace with the movement of population. 
If, by inaugurating these four movements, it is impossible to 
keep pace with the population, it will be necessary in the 
future to resort to the importation of supplies. 

Inasmuch as development during the first decade of the new 
century was not as rapid in agriculture as in other industries, the 



324 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

farmers have been placed in a more or less advantageous position 
because of their ability to force up land values and take advan- 
tage of the increased pressure. This is true, however, only of 
those farmers who have become landowners. There are at the 
present time about 6,362,000 farmers in the United States. 
Only about 4,000,000 of these own all or a part of their farms, 
and many of those who own their farms have not paid the en- 
tire purchase price. The point that I wish to make is that those 
who have title to their land, — whether they have the land en- 
tirely paid for or not, — are being placed more and more in ad- 
vantageous positions. Land values during the next half century 
will change greatly. Though in many districts doubtless the 
values are at the present time too high, generally speaking they 
will advance. The movement will .be in two directions. One of 
these will be a readjustment downward to a reasonable level, and 
the other will be a readjustment upward to conform to average 
values in other parts of the country. 

I have outlined above briefly the characteristics of the move- 
ment during the nineteenth century and the characteristics of 
the movement which is likely to take place during the first half 
of the twentieth century, and have quoted some statistics to sub- 
stantiate the conclusions. In order to show the extent to which 
this movement actually is taking place, it is worth while to quote 
more of the results of the census of 1900 as compared with 
those of the census of 19 10. In 1900 the average value of all 
farm property per acre of land in farms was $24.37; i n 19 10 
it was $46.64. This is an increase of 91.4 per cent during 
the decade, — an increase almost equal to the total increase of 
all past time. This large increase was due more to change in 
the value of land than to change in value of buildings, imple- 
ments and machinery, or live stock. The average value of land 
per acre (without buildings or equipment), for the United States 
as a whole, was $15.57 i n 1900 as compared with $32.40 in 
19 10, — an increase of 108. 1 per cent. Land is, therefore, 
clearly the most important factor. In contrast, the average value 
of buildings per acre of land in farms increased from $4.24 to 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 325 

$7.20 ; that of implements and machinery from $0.89 to $1.44 ; 
and that of live stock from $3.67 to $5.60. 

Another way to show the movement is to study the average 
value of farm property per farm. This, however, is not as satisfac- 
tory a basis as the average value per acre of land, because of the 
double movement. Between 1900 and 19 10 the average size of 
farms decreased from 146.2 acres to 138.1 acres. This decrease of 
8.1 acres, or 5.5 per cent, in .the average size of farms counter- 
balanced in part the increase in the average value of all farm 
property per farm. On the other hand, the average acreage of 
improved land per farm increased 4.2 per cent, the decrease 
being entirely in the unimproved land. The increases, however, 
are not as large as they would have been had the farms remained 
the same in size. The average value of all farm property per 
farm for ail farms in the United States was $3563 in 1900, 
whereas in 19 10 it was $6444. The increase in the value of 
land alone was from $2276 per farm to $4476 per farm ; that 
of buildings was from $620 to $994 ; that of implements and 
machinery was from $131 to $ 1 99 ; and that of live stock was 
from $536 to $774. 

When all of these facts are brought together, it becomes clear 
that during the first ten years of the new century the increase in 
quantity of farm property was very small. I have already noted 
that the increase in the acreage of land in farms was only 4.8 per 
cent. Since the number of farms increased only 10.9 per cent, I 
think we may safely assume that the number of sets of farm 
buildings increased probably not more than 10.9 per cent. Doubt- 
less during the decade there were many additional buildings 
added to those already on farms ; but the number of new build- 
ings erected Was probably far short of the increase reported in 
value of the farm buildings. The increase in the acreage of 
improved land in farms was given as 15.4 per cent. We may 
assume that the increase in the quantity of implements and ma- 
chinery was at least 15.4 per cent, and since the use of imple- 
ments and machinery is increasing in agriculture more or less 
rapidly, we may assume that each farm has added to its supply of 



326 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

these classes of equipment ; but I think we are safe in assuming 
that the quantity of implements and machinery did not increase 
as rapidly as the increase in value reported. Statistics are avail- 
able showing the increase in the number of each class of domestic 
animals, as well as of poultry and bees, on farms, and the results 
show clearly that the increase is largely in average value per ani- 
mal and only to a very small extent in the number of animals. 
The movement, therefore, during the first decade of the new 
century was clearly a very small increase in the quantity of agri- 
cultural property, but an extraordinarily large increase in the 
reported value. 

When the quantity of farm property and farm production are 
under consideration, it is easy enough to predict that the move- 
ment of the next half century will be along the lines indicated 
earlier in this paper (draining of swamps, irrigation of arid and 
semi-arid lands, fertilizing worn-out land, rotating crops in the 
most advantageous way, cultivating more intensively in order to 
increase production). It is also easy to predict that the rate of 
increase in the quantity of property will probably never again be 
as high as it was during the nineteenth century. But it would 
be hazardous even to attempt to predict what the movement will 
be with respect to the values of farm property, further than the 
readjustment in land values indicated above. We should keep 
constantly before us, however, the remarkable fact that the 
increase during the last ten years in the value of farm property 
in the United States is greater than that which had taken place 
from the landing of Columbus down to 1900. It would seem 
reasonable to contend that this movement could not continue 
at the same rapid pace ; and yet we cannot discover counter- 
acting forces. 

Many reasons have been given from time to time for the in- 
crease in the prices of almost everything which can be sold and 
purchased. It is doubtless true that the various reasons for the 
increase in prices of all other articles of exchange apply also in 
the case of farm land and equipment. I wish only to add some 
of the special reasons why farm land has increased in value so 
rapidly during the last decade. Free land being practically a 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 327 

thing of the past, — no longer available for those who wish to 
take up agriculture, — the prospective farmer was forced to start 
in a new way. Instead of moving to the frontier and depend- 
ing upon the labor of himself and family to build up a farm, he 
was forced either to buy land or to start as a tenant on land 
already in some other person's farm. The number of people 
wishing to buy land or to become tenants was thus increased, — 
being equal to the former number in this class and swelled by 
all those who otherwise would have gone to the frontier. The 
demand exceeded the supply. It was natural that the owners of 
land, finding more buyers than formerly, and finding more appli- 
cants among those who would become tenants than formerly, were 
able to secure either a larger price for the farms which they sold 
or a larger cash rental (or equivalent) for the farms which they 
leased. This problem, however, remains : if the farm did not 
produce more goods, or if the goods produced did not sell for 
higher prices, the prospective purchaser would be unable to pay 
the higher price for the land or the higher amount for rent, and 
therefore higher land values and higher rents would have been 
impossible, unless the new owners and tenants were reduced to 
a lower standard of living than formerly or unless their surplus 
earnings of former years were reduced. That land values did go 
up, that the standard of living did not go down, and that farmers 
in the past were not able to save large amounts of their savings 
are, I believe, established facts. The extent to which land values 
increased is also an established fact. It is natural, therefore, that 
we should at once ask the question, Was the increase in price 
which the farmer received (whether due to the increase in quan- 
tity of goods produced or not) sufficient to warrant the increased 
capitalization of farm lands ? 

The total value of the crops produced by the farmers of conti- 
nental United States in 1909 was $5,487,161,223, as compared 
with $2,998,704,412 in 1899. There was, therefore, an increase 
in the total value of crops amounting to $2,488,456,811, or ex- 
actly 83 per cent. For our purposes we must assume that the 
figures here given represent the value to the farmers of all crops 
which they produced. No doubt these figures are not exactly the 



328 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

amount which they received for their crops, because in many 
cases the crops were fed to animals on the farms. But the values 
given represented the amounts which farmers could have got for 
the crops had they sold them in the local markets. For our pur- 
poses it is sufficient to state that the figures here quoted represent 
the farm values of all farm crops for both 1909 and 1899. In 
order to arrive at a figure representing the average value of all 
crops per acre of land in crops, I have assembled for 1909 and 
1 899 all crops for which it is possible to secure satisfactory acre- 
age reports and value reports at both censuses. For this purpose 
it was necessary to eliminate an important group of farm products, 
namely, orchard fruits, grapes, tropical fruits, and nuts. In these 
cases it is almost impossible to secure a statement of the exact 
number of acres involved, inasmuch as hundreds of thousands of 
farmers have small numbers of fruit trees in and around their 
yards for which it is impossible for them to report acreage. But 
inasmuch as we are able to eliminate the values of these crops for 
both years and do not include the acreage figures, the figures 
which remain are comparable. It should be noted in passing that 
these crops are far from the top of the list when we consider all 
farm crops. Several small crops must also be eliminated, but 
these are, practically speaking, insignificant. Among these are 
maple sugar and syrup, for which there were no acreage reports, 
and also the forest products of farms. The total value of crops 
for which reports of acreage were secured in both 1909 and 
1899 amounted in 1909 to $5,073,997,594, and in 1899 to 
$2,768,339,569. In both cases they amounted to more than 90 
per cent of all crops as measured by value. The increase in the 
value of these crops was $2,305,658,025, or 83.3 per cent. 

Turning now to the acreage of these crops, I wish to note 
that in 1909 the acreage of all crops with acreage reports was 
311,293,382, and for 1899 the acreage was 283,218,280. The 
increase in the acreage, therefore, amounted to 28,075,102 acres, 
or only 9.9 per cent during the decade. It is perfectly clear from 
these figures, even if we went no further, that the average value 
of farm crops per acre of farm land under cultivation was greatly 
increased. It amounted to $16.30 in 1909 as compared with 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 329 

$9.77 in 1899, an increase of $6.53 per acre. This is an increase 
in the average value of crops per acre of 66.8 per cent. With 
these figures before us it is easy to see at least one of the reasons 
why the reported value per acre of farm land has advanced so 
rapidly. The total value of farm land increased because in the 
first place there was an increase in the total quantity of land in 
farms amounting to only 4.8 per cent. In the second place, there 
was an increase in the improved land in farms amounting to only 
15.4 per cent. These changes in themselves warrant a material 
increase in the total value of farm land, but they do not justify an 
increase such as I have recorded above. When we turn, however, 
to the income from farm land and find that the average value 
of crops per acre has increased 66.8 per cent, it is not surpris- 
ing that the farmers of the country have reported their lands at 
a higher figure than formerly. The remarkable feature of the 
reports is that the farmers should be able to judge so accurately 
the justifiable increase based upon the increase in the quantity 
of farm land combined with the increase in acreage of improved 
farm land, which in turn is combined with the increase in value 
of crops per acre of land actually in crops. 

Before leaving the subject it will be well to refer to other 
causes for the increase in land values. Prior to 1900 (approxi- 
mately) land was available in such large quantities that many 
persons wishing to buy land were unwilling to do so because of its 
producing capacity only. Much of the free land was equally as 
productive as the land for which the buyer must pay a price. 
Therefore the intelligent buyer bought because of desirable location 
and advantageous situation. Probably a considerable part of the 
price paid was paid because the land was favorably located on a 
river or lake, or because it was gently rolling or the water was 
good, climatic conditions favorable, or the general outlook promis- 
ing. Another part of the price was paid because of the adaptability 
of the farm. It was easily tilled, the fields were regular in size, 
there were no obstacles, the soil worked up well, or some other 
characteristic of this sort prevailed. But probably more important 
than either of these two facts has been the advantageous situation 
with reference to the market. Either the farm was close to the 



330 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

railroad where supplies might be secured, or the roads were good 
from the farm to the city or to the railroad, or the farm was 
advantageously situated with reference to large population centers 
and good markets. Because of an advantageous situation freight 
rates on supplies to the farm were low, as also were freight rates 
on the products from the farm. Thus the farmer had a larger 
surplus from his products and paid a lower price for supplies 
purchased than otherwise would have been the case. The surplus 
was attributed to the farm, and higher land values resulted. In 
addition to these reasons for differences in land values in the past, 
a fourth reason must never be lost sight of. This fourth reason 
may well be referred to as the variations in Nature herself. Some 
land is most useful for the production of wheat, some for the 
production of cotton ; and some land is naturally more fertile than 
other land. This natural adaptability has been capitalized and will 
be capitalized in the future. All of these reasons for wishing to 
own land, and added to these the desire for a home and a capitali- 
zation of the possiblities of the future, have become stronger in 
recent years. 

Going one step further, I believe that the statistics collected by 
the Bureau of the Census in 1900 and in 19 10 give a basis for 
deciding whether the higher value of crops per acre devoted to 
crops was due to the fact that more goods were produced on the 
land in use, or to a higher price paid for the goods which were 
produced. No prior census reports give a basis for such a study, 
and even the reports for 1900 and 19 10 do not give a basis for a 
complete analysis of this subject, nor is the basis sufficient to state 
absolutely the extent to which each of these forces was an in- 
fluence. I believe, however, that figures can easily be presented 
which show that the movement during the last decade has been 
almost entirely a change in the price received by the farmer for 
his goods rather than an increase in the quantity of goods pro- 
duced. This is an important feature of the new-century movement. 

What I have shown has been in the nature of an explanation 
of the rapid increase in the value of land and farm property 
generally. So far, no attempt has been made to prove that the 
increase in the average value of crops per acre was due to a 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 331 

change in the price of the product rather than to a change in the 
amount produced. In order to show this we will pass from a study 
of the acreage of crops and the relationship existing between 
acreage and value, to a study of the production together with the 
relationship between quantity produced and value. The most im- 
portant group of crops is the general group designated a^ cereals. 
Considering this as a whole, we find that whereas there was an 
increase of only 1.7 per cent in the number of bushels produced 
there was an increase of 79.8 per cent in the value. Clearly the 
increase here is due almost entirely to the increase in the value 
per bushel, not to any material increase in production. Turning 
our attention now to individual cereals, we find that there was an 
actual decrease in the quantity of corn produced of 4.3 per cent, 
yet at the same time an increase in the total value of the corn 
crop of 73.7 per cent. There was an increase of only 6.8 per 
cent in the quantity of oats produced, and yet there was an increase 
of 91 per cent in the value of that crop. Likewise the increase 
in the quantity of wheat produced was 3.8 per cent, whereas 
the increase in the value was 77.8 per cent. Without going into 
the same detail, it is sufficient to notice that in every other class, 
— barley, buckwheat, rye, kafir corn and millo maize, and rice, — 
the increase in value was much greater than the increase in quantity 
produced. The same thing is true in the case of such minor grains 
and seeds as dry edible beans, dry peas, peanuts, and flaxseed. 

Turn now to other cases. For another crop of extraordinary 
importance, — that of hay and forage, — we find the same gen- 
eral story. There was an increase of 23 per cent in the number 
of tons produced, accompanied by an increase of 70.2 per cent 
in the value of the crop. The quantity of tobacco increased 2 1 .6 
per cent, while the value of the crop increased 83 per cent. An 
increase of 11.7 per cent in the quantity of cotton produced was 
accompanied by an increase of 117.3 per cent in the value of the 
cotton crop. It is unnecessary here to list all of the farm crops 
which I have considered. Suffice it to say that in every case where 
the quantity of crop and value of the crop have been reported 
I have found the same tendency. It is worth while to note that 
in this study it is possible to make comparisons in the production 



332 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of fruits and nuts. The quantity of small fruits decreased during 
the decade 7.9 per cent, while the value increased 19.8 per cent. 
The quantity of orchard fruits increased 1.8 per cent, while the 
value increased 68.2 per cent. Grapes increased 97.6 per cent in 
quantity but only 56.3 per cent in value. This item, however, 
needs explanation before it can be accepted. At the census of 
1900 the farmers were instructed to report the value of grapes in 
their natural form whenever they were disposed of in that form ; 
but whenever they were disposed of in the form of dried grapes 
or raisins, or in the form of wine or grape juice, the reported value 
should be the value of the finished product rather than of the raw 
material. At the census of 19 10 the farmers were instructed to 
report in all cases the value of the grapes in their original form. 
The increase in the quantity of nuts produced was 55.7 per cent, 
whereas the increase in the value was 128.1 per cent. 

Even if we went no further than this, there could no longer be 
doubt that the extraordinary increase in the total value of farm 
crops between 1899 and 1909 is attributable to higher prices 
rather than to larger quantities of the individual kinds of farm 
products. I do not wish, however, to stop at this point. I believe 
that it is possible to make an easy and almost exact calculation 
showing the extent to which the change in value of farm products 
is due to change in quantity produced and the extent to which 
it is due to the change in price. It is true that we cannot add 
together the quantities of cereals, hay and forage, tobacco, cotton, 
fruit, and therefore we cannot get the consolidated quantity by 
any process of weighting the units of measure. But it is possible 
to secure the average value per unit in 1899 for the individual 
crops for which both quantity produced and value were reported 
at both censuses. Having secured the average value per unit in 
1899 we may multiply this into the quantity of the crop produced 
in 1909. In this way we shall secure the total value which would 
have been reported for each individual crop in 1909 if the aver- 
age value per unit had remained the same as ten years earlier. In 
making this study it is necessary to eliminate certain crops, inas- 
much as the values were not reported separately for a few minor 
crops in 1899, and further because quantities were not reported 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 333 

for certain minor crops at either census. The quantity produced 
and the value, however, have been reported for something more 
than 90 per cent of all crops, as measured by value, both in 1 899 
and 1909. 

The total reported value of the crops covered by the computa- 
tion was $2,691,978,541 in 1899. The total reported value of the 
same crops was $4,934,489,828 in 1909. This is an increase of 
83.3 per cent as compared with an increase of 83 per cent in 
the value of all crops, showing that the crops selected not only 
constitute approximately 90 per cent of all crops but also are 
representative of the whole. Had the average values per unit in 
1899 prevailed until 1909 the total value of these same crops 
would have amounted to $2,962,358,477, which would have been 
an increase of only $270,379,936, or 10 per cent. This increase, 
I believe, represents very closely the actual increase in quantity of 
crops of all kinds during the decade. Having in mind all of the 
steps which were followed, it is extremely interesting to note how 
closely the increase in the acreage of crops with acreage reports 
approaches this increase in quantity of products. 

It must be clear, therefore, that if only 10 per cent of the 
increase in the total value of crops can be accounted for by the 
increase in the quantity, that the remainder must be attributed to 
an increase in the average value per unit. The difference between 
$4,934,489,828, which is the 1909 reported value of the crops 
being compared, and $2,962,358,477, which would be the 1909 
value of the crops being compared if the average values of 1899 
had continued until 1909, must represent the excess of actual 
values of the crops of 1909 over the values of 1909 on the basis 
of 1899 average values. This excess amounts to 66.6 per cent and 
represents evidently the average percentage increase in prices. 
Attention is now directed once more to an earlier part of this dis- 
cussion, where I called attention to the fact that the average value 
per acre of crops with acreage reports was 66.8 per cent higher 
in 1909 than in 1899. It must be clear from all of these figures 
that this increase in average values of crops per acre is due almost 
entirely, if not entirely, to the change in prices rather than to 
change in the quantities of farm products. 



334 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

In conclusion, I desire to direct attention to several figures 
which have been given out by the Census Bureau representing the 
movement between 1900 and 19 10. Inasmuch as the figure given 
above, 9.9 per cent, represents the increase in acreage of crops 
with acreage reports, and inasmuch as the increase in other crops 
must have been at approximately the same rate, it is proper to 
compare this item with other items of growth. Similarly, inas- 
much as the figure given in the preceding paragraph, 10 per cent, 
representing the excess of the value of the crops in 1909 on the 
basis of 1899 values over the values of the same crops in 1899, 
is virtually the consolidated expression of the general increase in 
quantity of crops produced, it may be compared with other items 
which have been made public. I wish to call attention, in compar- 
ison, to the increase in the number of farms between 1900 and 
19 10. This amounted to 10.9 per cent. The figure was compiled 
independently by the agricultural division of the Census Bureau. 
In the same connection I wish to call attention to the increase in 
the rural population, — which, however, includes places under 
2500 inhabitants, in addition to the agricultural population. The 
increase was 1 1.2 per cent. It should be noted that this tabulation 
was carried on by an entirely different and independent organiza- 
tion which was in complete charge of the population returns. That 
division has also reported that the increase in urban population 
amounted to 34.8 per cent. The movement during the last decade 
can clearly be summarized, therefore, as follows. There has been 
a very decided movement towards the cities. The increase in 
rural population, number of farms, acreage of land in crops, and 
quantity of crops approximated 10 per cent, whereas the increase 
in city population approximated 35 per cent. The farmers of the 
country have been unable to produce crops in proportion to the 
increased demands, their increase in production being only suffi- 
cient to supply the increased demands of the rural population and 
an increase of but 10 per cent in urban population. The prices 
of agricultural- products have increased approximately 66.6 per 
cent, and at the same time there was an increase in the average 
value of crops per acre of 66.8 per cent. Accompanying this 
increase in the value of crops per acre (supplemented by a small 



DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 335 

increase in the quantity of land in farms and improved land in 
farms) farm property has been capitalized anew at a figure 
sufficiently high to take advantage of the changed conditions. 

In the discussion I naturally have been forced to use the fig- 
ures for 1909 and 1899, since these are the only years for which 
definite and reasonably accurate statistics are available. The sta- 
tistics for the other years are nothing better than estimates made 
by various individuals or government bureaus. It is best to hold 
to the absolute figures secured from the farmers, and therefore I 
shall limit the study to these two years. After a very extensive 
study of climatic conditions and general agricultural conditions 
for the two years thus necessarily selected I am ready to state 
my belief that they were typical or representative years, not 
abnormal in any material respect. In some districts conditions 
were exceptionally bad or exceptionally good in 1899, and the 
same was true of 1909. For the United States as a whole and 
for all crops which it is possible to bring into the analysis here 
presented, these years are as comparable as it is possible to find 
two years any distance apart. 

It is true that the hope has been, and I believe I may say that 
the belief has been, that agriculture was increasing rapidly, if not 
keeping pace with the increase of population. The people of the 
United States have been more than willing to supply the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, state agricultural experiment stations, and a 
great variety of agricultural schools, colleges, and lecturers with 
all of the funds necessary, believing that all of this pointed 
towards a larger production of goods as a basis for the food, 
beverage, and clothing supply of our people. v Hundreds of mil- 
lions of dollars have been expended for this purpose. It may 
seem that this expenditure has been in vain, since the average 
production of agriculture has not increased. But without it doubt- 
less there would have been far-reaching decreases due to depre- 
ciation of the soil and failure of the farmers to maintain the 
average production secured when they first took charge. It is 
not my wish or purpose to discredit these agricultural agencies 
and institutions, which have been faithfully at work for over half 
a century. I believe thoroughly in the work which they are doing, 



336 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and in the high purposes which they have in mind. But hitherto 
the proportion of the effort expended by these agencies which has 
reached the actual farmer is comparatively small, and the amount 
absorbed by the farmers and put into practice even smaller. In 
other words, the work up to the present time has largely been 
experimental, or learning by experiment what ought to be done. 
Principles have then been taught in institutions to people who 
in turn have in mind the teaching of people to teach still other 
people. Up to the present time almost all of the work has been 
teaching various persons to teach ; it has not been teaching the 
farmers to produce. Though hundreds of millions of pages of 
literature have been distributed among farmers, only a small per- 
centage has actually been read, and only a small percentage of 
that read has been put into practice. It has taken almost all, if 
not all, of the education which has reached the farmers to date, 
to prevent any downward movement in the quantity produced per 
acre of land actually cultivated. 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING : A STUDY 
OF A LEADING STATE 

By C. W. Thompson 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XVIII, p. 570, 
November, 1903) 

AMONG the problems that arise in a study of wheat-farming 
l\ are (1) the cause of the westward movement of wheat- 
growing and (2) the size of the most economical wheat farm. An 
attempt will be made in this paper to apply to the above problems 
the results of a study of a typical wheat state. 

The following table indicates the growth of wheat-growing in 
Minnesota and her rank as a wheat-growing state : 







Bushels 


Rank 




Bushels 


Rank 


1850 

i860 

1870 


1,401 

2,186,993 

18,866,073 


12 


1880 .... 
1890 .... 
I9OO .... 


34,601,030 
52,300,247 
80,102,627 


9 
6 

2 



Crop failures in Kansas in 1902 gave Minnesota first rank for 
that year. 

The growth thus made apparent has not been uniform, however. 
In i860 each of the 9 leading counties produced above 100,000 
bushels, as follows : 





Bushels 




Bushels 


1. Fillmore 

2. Olmsted 

3. Dakota 

4. Winona 

5. Goodhue 


391,350 
232,469 

i73> 6 5 2 
166,950 

152,348 


6. Hennepin .... 

7. Rice 

8. Wabasha .... 

9. Houston .... 


135,715 
130,433 
114,227 
108,518 



337 



338 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The counties mentioned are in the extreme southeast portion 
of the state or near the Mississippi River in the region of the 
twin cities (St. Paul and Minneapolis). 

In 1870 the leading wheat counties produced as follows : 



Bushels 



Olmsted . 
Goodhue 
Fillmore 
Wabasha 
Dakota . 
Winona . . 
Blue Earth 
Mower . 
Dodge . . 



2,117,054 

1,815,403 

1,687,424 

1,476,643 

i,435.36i 

1,315,012 

725,879 

673,017 

634>74i 



It is thus seen that in 1870 the leading wheat counties con- 
tinued to be practically the same as in the previous decade. Six 
of the counties were now producing over 1,000,000 bushels each ; 
while the leading county, Olmsted, containing only 648 square 
miles of territory, produced over 2,000,000 bushels, or 3268 
bushels per square mile. This product becomes significant when 
we notice that thirty years later — in 1900 — the 2 leading wheat- 
producing counties, Polk and Ottertail, produced only 1362 and 
1 79 1 bushels per square mile, respectively. 

In 1880 conditions within the leading wheat counties remained 
practically unchanged, though additional wheat fields, during the 
intervening years, had been added along the Minnesota River 
and in the central and northwestern parts of the state. While the 
wheat industry had thus been practically at a standstill in the 
older counties the increase in the total output of the state from 
18,866,073 bushels in 1870 to 34,601,030 bushels in 1880 came 
from new counties into which the industry had been extended. 

In 1890 there were 22 counties that produced over 1,000,000 
bushels each. Of these the leading ones were Polk, Ottertail, 
Stearns, Renville, Lac qui Parle, Sibley, Meeker, Blue Earth, and 
Brown counties. All of these lie in the western half of the valley 
of the Minnesota River or on the plains in the central-western 
part of the state or in the valley of the Red River of the North. 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 



339 



In the meantime there was a rapid falling off in the older 
counties, as is indicated in the following table : 





Product in 1870 
(In bushels) 


Product in 1890 
(In bushels) 




1,815,403 

1,687,424 

1,476,643 

2,117,054 

1,435,361 

1,315,012 

673,017 

623,557 

634,741 


604,327 
156,728 
305,388 
198,992 
64,806 
466,845 
108,763 
129,619 
132,900 




Wabasha 


Olmsted 

Dakota 




Houston 

Dodge 



Coming down to the year 1900, we find that there were 42 
counties producing more than 1,000,000 bushels each; and out 
of these, 1 2 counties produced more than 2,000,000 bushels each. 
The 9 leading counties are given below : 



Bushels 



Polk 

Ottertail . . . 
Tlenville . . . 
Lac qui Parle 
Stearns .... 

Clay 

Yellow Medicine 
Redwood . . . 
Marshall . . . 



4,128,620 
3,941,160 
3,698,160 
3,219,230 
3,022,230 

2,593-390 
2,552,700 
2,529,620 
2,225,440 



Thus the tendency of the wheat industry to shift northward and 
westward, as shown in the figures for 1890, is still further 
emphasized by those for 1900. Figures since 1900 show further 
movement in this direction. The valley of the Red River of the 
North, that part of the valley of the Minnesota River northwest 
from Blue Earth County, together with the plains lying immedi- 
ately north and in the central-western part of the state, accordingly 
comprise today's great wheat-producing areas in Minnesota. 



340 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

We are now led to inquire why such a shifting of the wheat 
industry has taken place. The answer to this query is important, 
for it explains not merely the cause of changes in farming within 
the confines of the state of Minnesota, but it will also account for 
that larger movement of the wheat industry from New York to 
Ohio and Illinois and thence to the great Northwest and the 
Pacific coast. 

If we examine the kind of farming carried on in the south and 
southeast portions of Minnesota today, we shall notice that it is 
highly diversified. Creameries or cheese factories are found in 
every township. Barley, corn, or hay is raised in the place of 
wheat ; and these products are not sold in the market directly, but 
are fed to cattle and hogs on the farm. The cattle are not raised 
primarily for beef, but rather for the milk from which butter and 
cheese — the direct products for the market — are derived. Meat, 
hides, etc., from the cattle — so far as they are marketed — serve 
in reality as a by-product. 

Why have these farmers abandoned wheat-raising and taken up 
dairy-farming ? The land is just as fertile here as in any part of 
the state. Just as many bushels of wheat per acre were raised in 
Olmsted County in 1870 as can be raised today on the best wheat 
lands of the Red River valley. The land in Olmsted County is 
as fertile now as it was thirty-five years ago. It is not, therefore, a 
difference in fertility or adaptability in soil or condition of climate 
that has caused the change. Neither can it be due to a difference 
in the contour of the land. The southern and southeastern counties 
of the state contain plains upon which modern agricultural 
machinery can be used as easily as in the Red River region. The 
cost of agricultural machinery, the price of wheat, the cost of farm 
labor, and the rate of interest charged on farm loans are all such 
as to give a relative advantage to the farmers in the southeastern 
counties rather than to those further northwest. The cause of the 
change must therefore be sought elsewhere. 

When the southeastern counties of the state were first settled, 
wheat-growing was the kind of farming adopted. As the settle- 
ments were gradually extended northward and westward each 
locality in its turn adopted wheat-growing at first. It follows that 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 341 

wheat production was deemed best adapted to the conditions of 
frontier agriculture. There are, however, certain localities in 
Minnesota not on the frontier which are nevertheless devoted to 
wheat-raising. Mention has been made of that part of the valley 
of the Minnesota River northwest from Blue Earth County. What 
does this region have in common with that on the frontier that it 
should be devoted to wheat production, while other localities have 
changed their mode of farming to that of dairying ? 

Those who recall J. S. Mill's theory of international exchange, 
as illustrated by the example of the five islands, will remember 
that each of his islands produced that in which it had a relative 
rather than an absolute advantage over the others. Similarly, it is 
evident that when a man has a choice between dairy- and wheat- 
farming he will choose whichever makes it possible for him to 
employ most efficiently the productive forces involved. On the 
frontier and along the valley of the Minnesota River northwest 
from Blue Earth County wheat-farming seems to pay better than 
dairy-farming. In the southeastern counties, however, wheat cannot 
be grown profitably, though just as good crops can be grown, with 
just as little labor, as in the northwest. But, since wheat-growing 
does not pay so well as dairying, it is evident that no one could 
afford to use his land for wheat-growing. Even if, as is often the 
case, the farmer is a successful wheat-grower, but entirely unfitted 
for dairying, still he could not afford to grow wheat, for the reason 
that the land has become too valuable because of its adaptability 
for dairying. He cannot afford to hold the land for wheat-growing 
when others will offer him what it is worth to them for dairying. 

On the frontier the land is more valuable for wheat-farming. 
Now in either of these two kinds of farming the productive forces 
involved are land, labor, and capital. The farmer will ordinarily 
raise the product which, after paying rent to land and interest on 
the capital invested, leaves the largest amount of value as wages for 
his own labor. If either rent or interest be lowered and the value 
of the total product remains the same, it follows that the share 
going to wages will be increased. Accordingly, if land is free or 
very low in price, as on the frontier, the farmer will have little or 
nothing to pay as rent. After paying interest on the capital 



342 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

invested he can retain what is left as wages. Hence, when a man 
farms where land is free, the aim will be to extend the use of a 
given amount of labor and capital over a large area, no additional 
expense being thereby added in the form of rent. The farmer 
will select the area from which his labor and capital can get the 
product of the largest total value possible. He will therefore adopt 
an extensive kind of farming, such as wheat-growing. As soon, 
however, as the land acquires a value, thus involving a definite 
expense per acre (regardless of the value of the product), the 
farmer finds it necessary to direct his farming so as to get a larger 
return per acre. 

Whether the extensive or intensive kind of farming is the more 
profitable is thus seen to depend, from the standpoint of an indi- 
vidual farmer, upon the price of the land. The rise or fall in the 
price of the land depends partly upon the use to which it can be 
devoted. If one man uses a given area for wheat-raising and some 
one else thinks he can farm the same area more intensively and 
realize a larger net return per acre, the latter will be in a position 
to offer a larger price for the land than the former can afford to 
pay or to hold it at if he is the owner. In this way the wheat 
farmer will be "crowded out" from the higher-priced land or he 
will change to a more intensive kind of farming. 

The question may now be asked, If a farmer can make more 
money by intensive cultivation on high-priced land, why can he 
not do the same with the more intensive cultivation on cheaper 
lands, and thus crowd out the wheat industry entirely ? The 
answer has already been suggested. The farmer wants to realize 
as much value as possible. If by raising corn he can cover only 50 
acres in a season, while by raising wheat he can handle 200 acres 
with the same labor and capital, he figures up which will give in 
return the largest amount of value over and above expenses, and 
decides his plan of farming accordingly. Where land is free or 
reasonably cheap, the more extensive farming will give the largest 
net returns and such farming as wheat-raising will pay best. 

We thus see that, while the demand for land and therefore its 
price are determined partly by the use to which it can be devoted 
and partly by the general social conditions of the time and place, 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 343 

the price of the land in turn helps to determine the kind of farming 
that is most profitable from the standpoint of the individual farmer. 
To the individual farmer wheat is an unprofitable crop in the 
southeastern counties of Minnesota because the land is too high. 
From the standpoint of society at large it may be said that the land 
is too high because other crops are more profitable than wheat. It 
is the individual farmer, however, who has to choose between the 
extensive or more intensive modes of farming, and whose decision 
has determined the movement of the wheat industry. We must 
look at the question from his standpoint, therefore, if we are to 
appreciate the cause of the movement. The reason why a man 
adopting the more intensive modes of farming can crowd out the 
wheat-farmer is that the former can pay a higher price for the land 
than the latter, because he can grow a more valuable crop than 
wheat. On the other hand, the reason why the wheat farmer under 
such conditions moves to the cheaper lands is that the added 
expense from increased rent on the high-priced land leaves a 
smaller net return to him than could be realized if the land were 
cultivated more intensively, while at the same time larger net 
returns will accrue by taking up cheaper lands. 

This cause of the shifting of wheat-farming as applied to the 
state of Minnesota accounts for the movement of the wheat belt 
from east to west across the continent. In a general way the 
wheat belt of thirty years ago has the same advantages over the 
West that the southeastern counties of Minnesota have over 
those of the Red River valley. There are, however, two other 
conditions that have given the West a relative advantage over the 
East for purposes of wheat culture. Some of the eastern lands 
had through long usage been deprived of some of their fertility. 
This, however, had not been carried far enough to affect materi- 
ally the movement of the wheat industry. More important than 
this is the fact that eastern farms were planned for the early 
kind of wheat-farming, before binders and reapers had affected 
the economy of wheat production. The farms were therefore so 
small in size that the individual farmer with his limited number 
of acres could not utilize the later improved machinery to its full 
capacity. The force of this will be more fully appreciated when 



344 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



viewed in the light of the subsequent discussion on the most 
economical size for wheat farms. 

We have already noticed that Olmsted County raised more 
wheat to the square mile of its area in 1870 than was done in 
our leading wheat-raising counties in 1900. This was at a time 
when the methods were very different from those of today. The 
binder could not be used for practical service before the early 
seventies. The farmers in Olmsted County and of Minnesota 
in general had to resort to the reaper and hire men to bind the 
grain by hand according to the plan of ''binding stations." Four 
men would each have their quarter of the distance around the 
field in which all the bundles had to be bound for every round 
made by the reaper. The large amount of labor needed during 
harvest is, therefore, evident. When the binder first came into 
use, it was very expensive. Four hundred dollars was the least 
it could be bought for at that time. Ten years later the price 
still stood at a high figure. In the latter year (1880) the father 
of the present writer paid three hundred and fifty dollars for a 
wooden-framed Piano binder. It will be interesting to compare 
farming under such conditions with that of later times. 

The census reports afford us figures by counties for the number 
of farms, acres of improved land, total value of farm implements 
and machinery, total expenditure to farm labor, and also total 
value of products. The last-named item is not given as such, 
but can be made up from figures for live stock and those for the 
value of products not fed to stock. The following table is made 
up from the above-mentioned items : 







■ Value of Im- 
plements and 


Average Num- 
ber of Acres of 


Average Ex- 
penditure for 


Total Value of 
Product per 
Acre of Im- 
proved Land 


County 


Machinery per 
Acre of Im- 
proved Land 


Improved Land 
in the Average- 
sized Farm 


Labor per 
Acre of Im- 
proved Land 


Olmsted in 1870 . . 


$2.63 


84 


$2.44 


$14.24 


Olmsted in 1900 . . 


I.69 


128 


•73 


J 3-94 


Polk in 1900 ... . 


I.62 


150 


1.29 


943 


Lac qui Parle in 1900 . 


I.42 


200 


•95 


9.72 


Renville in 1900 . . . 


I.42 


166 


.87 


10.28 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 345 

The kind of farming in Olmsted County in 1870 has already 
been indicated, also that used in this county in 1900. Figures 
for Polk, Lac qui Parle, and Renville are selected, because these 
were the leading wheat counties in the three main wheat sections 
of Minnesota in 1900. 

We thus have before us three types of farming : first, wheat- 
raising with the reaper, as seen in Olmsted County in 1870; 
second, highly diversified farming for products such as butter, 
cheese, and pork, as seen in Olmsted County in 1900 ; and 
third, wheat-raising according to modern methods, as seen in the 
counties Polk, Lac qui Parle, and Renville, in 1900. The con- 
trast in the value of implements and machinery per acre in 1870 
and the values for 1900 is due to the very high prices of farm 
machinery in 1870. When the binders first came into use, the 
value of implements and machinery per acre became still greater. 
Thus the figures for this in Renville County in 1880 were $3.24 
per acre. In the comparisons for 1900 the value of implements 
and machinery per acre is seen to be greatest in Olmsted County. 
It will be noticed, however, that the average size of farms is the 
smallest in this county. In the other counties the same amount 
of machinery is used on a larger number of acres, and the value 
per acre is accordingly diminished. For purposes of wheat-farm- 
ing one set of machinery (one binder, one seeder or drill, one 
harrow) can do all the work on each of the averaged-sized farms 
of the counties referred to above. Where the farms are largest, 
therefore, and still use "one set," the implements and machinery 
are used with greatest economy and the value of these per acre 
becomes least. This explains why the figures for Olmsted 
County in 1900 are greater than those for Polk County, and also 
why those of the latter county are larger than those of Lac qui 
Parle and Renville. The reason why the figures for Lac qui 
Parle County are not smaller than those of Renville is due to 
the fact that the farms in the former county are so large that in 
a large number of cases one set of implements and machinery is 
not sufficient for the work required — in other words, more than 
one of some of the implements have to be used for the average 
farm. As far as the use of capital is concerned, therefore, the 



346 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

figures point to the fact that farms of 160 or 170 acres each are 
the most economical. 

The most economically managed of all wheat farms is that just 
large enough to utilize one complete set of farm implements and 
machinery to its fullest capacity. Since one laborer is needed for 
each set, it follows that in the above plan labor will also be uti- 
lized to its fullest capacity. That farm is the best managed and 
pays best on which the labor and capital expended are both 
thus utilized to their fullest extent. It may be urged that two 
men and two sets of implements and machinery ought to do just 
as well and perhaps better on a farm twice as large. They do 
not, however, for the reason that there is no economy from fur- 
ther organization, since one man with one set of modern farm 
implements and machinery has all the advantages organization 
can give. Moreover, when there is just one worker, that worker 
is in general practice the owner of the farm. Where more than 
one is needed, resort must be made to hired laborers. The last- 
named fact is important in determining why one set is more effi- 
cient pro rata than two. The work of an owner is always more 
careful and less wasteful than that of a hired laborer. The force 
of this statement can be fully appreciated only by those who have 
seen the work of the average hired laborer in the harvest field. 

Turning our attention now to the average expenditure of labor 
per acre, we note that the figures for Olmsted County in 1870 
are very high. The large amount of labor needed then per acre 
accounts for this. In the comparisons for 1900 the Olmsted 
farmer is found to expend less for labor per acre than the farmers 
of the other counties. His farming, however, is very different 
from that of the others. His work is largely concerned with 
stock ; and for work of this kind the farmer's wife and children 
lend, in practice, a very helpful hand. Besides, the work is 
evenly distributed over the entire year. He gets along with com- 
paratively little hired labor when his farm is of the average size. 
The wheat farmer, on the other hand, is confronted with certain 
busy seasons of the year, when a great deal of work must be 
accomplished in a very limited time. The need of hiring extra 
labor at such times is obvious. The figures for labor in the three 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 347 

wheat counties are further evidence of the economy of the " one- 
set " farm of the proper size. It is true that wages per day for 
hired labor are not the same in the three counties. Thus Renville 
County is nearest the large cities, and gets labor the cheapest. 
Polk County is farthest away, and must pay the highest wages. 
After making due allowance for this, however, the relation still 
holds, as shown above. 

Turning to the total value of the product per acre, we notice 
that the highest figures are those for Olmsted County in 1870. 
This w 7 as the result of wheat-farming under the reaper regime, 
and the high figures are due to the exceptionally high price of 
wheat at that time. The richest farmers in Olmsted County to- 
day will tell you that they got their "start" during those years. 
Although the value of the product per acre over and above the 
cost of labor and the cost of implements and machinery 7 , as de- 
termined from the above figures, appears higher in 1900 under 
diversified farming than in the reaper era under high wheat 
prices (being $11.52 per acre for the former and $9.17 per acre 
for the latter), notice must be taken of another item of expense 
not shown in the above table. Reference is made to the wide 
contrast in the prices of land. This expense was very small in 
1870. Now, however, the Olmsted farmer has to pay fifty or 
sixty dollars an acre for land (this means with buildings, fences, 
and other equipment, or total investment necessary to buy a farm) . 
When rent on this is computed, the advantages of the wheat 
farmer of 1870 become evident. 

We are now in a position to appreciate the meaning of a move- 
ment that has taken place in the wheat-farming regions of the 
Northwest during recent years. This is the breaking-up of the 
bonanza wheat farm. When the experiment on these large farms 
was first begun and a long series of machines and implements 
were put to work on the great plains, the power was so great and 
the scale of work so large that many believed the most economical 
method of wheat-farming had been secured, and that farming on 
a small scale was henceforth doomed to failure. Mere size of in- 
dustry, however, does not insure efficiency. The latter can only 
be secured where labor and capital are combined with land in 



348 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



such a way that each is utilized to its full extent. The waste 
possible in wheat-raising is very great. This fact must be taken 
into account more and more as the cost of raising wheat is in- 
creased. When land was cheap, the bonanza wheat farmer could 
let his great caravan of machinery, implements, and labor skim 
over the plains and the more ground they covered, the larger 
would be the net as well as the gross returns. With a rise in the 
price of land, however, a new item of expense had to be met and 
more value had to be secured from each acre used, if the business 
was to pay. The bonanza farmer had no way of getting more 
value from the land per acre. The small farmer, however, could 
add to the returns by more careful wheat-farming. He could save 
waste, and take an owner's interest in the field cultivated. 

We thus see that the rise in the price of land, by means of 
which the diversified farmer crowds out the wheat farmer of 
southern Minnesota, enables the wheat farmer owning 160 or 170 
acres to crowd out the bonanza farmer of the Northwest. In 
either process the movement is toward a kind of farming which 
produces more per acre. Though the rise in the value of the land 
is partly the result of the more intensive farming, yet the social 
and other advantages of a settled community are in themselves 
powerful factors in increasing this value, and, as already shown, 
the rise in value in turn forces a more intensive system of farming 
upon such communities. 

The relative advantages of wheat-farming and the more intensive 
diversified farming can be further compared by means of the follow- 
ing data gathered from the United States census reports of 1900 : 





County 


Total Acres 
of Land in 

Farms 


Acres of Im- 
proved Land 
in Farms 


Value of Land and 
I mprovements (ex- 
cept Buildings) 


Value of 
Buildings 


Olmsted 

Renville 


405,889 
584,659 


327419 
500,199 


$13,592,810 
13,563,070 


$2,684,110 
2 '358,530 






County 


Value of Im- 
plements and 
Machinery 


Value of 
Live Stock 


Value of Products 

not Fed to Live 

Stock 


Expenditure 
for Labor 


Olmsted 

Renville 


$555,160 $2,005,259 
709,490 1,908,030 


#2,559,762 

3> 2 35>oo4 


$240,630 
436,920 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 349 

From the above tables the following has been compiled : 





County 


Improved Acres 
in Each Farm 


Total Acres in 
Each Farm 


Value per Acre 
of Land in a 
Farm, taking To- 
tal Acres 


Value of Build- 
ings per Acre of 
Improved Land 


Olmsted . . . 
Renville . . . 


128 
166 


159 
194 


#33 
2 3 


$8.20 
4.70 







County 


Value of Imple- 
ments and Ma- 
chinery per Acre 
of Improved Land 


Value of Live 

Stock per Acre 

of Improved Land 


Value of Prod- 
ucts Fed to Live 

Stock per Acre 
of Improved Land 


Expenditure for 

Labor per Acre 

of Improved Land 


Olmsted . . . 
Renville ... 


$1.70 
I.40 


$6.12 
3.81 


#7-8i 
6.46 


#0.73 
.87 



Land in Olmsted County is thus valued half again as high as 
in Renville County. The cost of buildings, implements and ma- 
chinery, and live stock per acre in Renville is about five-eighths 
of that in Olmsted County. The total value of buildings, imple- 
ments, machinery, and live stock per farm in Olmsted County is 
$2050.56. In Renville it is $1645.06. The average total land 
value in each average-sized farm in Olmsted County is $2050.56. 
In Renville it is $1645.06. The average total land value in each 
average-sized farm in Olmsted is $5247. In Renville it is 
$4462. The total investment in the average-sized Olmsted farm 
becomes $7297.56; in Renville, $6107.06. 

Deducting the cost of labor per farm from the value of each 
farm's yearly product, we have $906.24 as the average income on 
a farm in Olmsted County, and $927.94 for Renville. 

A man with a capital of a little over $7000 can thus buy 
an average-sized, fully equipped farm in Olmsted County, and 
his income will be reasonably certain. He could, however, with 
$1000 less, buy a larger farm in Renville County, and get, per- 
haps, a larger yearly income. This income, however, would not 
be so certain ; moreover, there are certain social disadvantages in 
living in a new country. A man with sufficient capital, wishing to 
invest in farm lands where the income is safe from year to year, 



350 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

will prefer Olmsted farms. If, however, one is willing to hazard 
the risk of steadiness in income for the sake of the probability of 
a larger yearly return, and at the same time wishes to realize gain 
from increase in the price of land, preference will undoubtedly be 
shown for Renville farms. Men who do not own enough capital 
to buy an Olmsted farm may have enough for a small wheat 
farm. In this way the poorer farmers tend to settle in the wheat 
region or on the frontier. All the data presented tend, therefore, 
to emphasize still further the conclusions already reached. 

It remains to be considered whether charges for transportation, 
alone or with other causes, are of importance in determining 
which kind of farming is the most profitable. It is true that 
transportation charges have some effect. Freight charges are 
higher on a dollar's worth of butter than on a dollar's worth 
of wheat. If, therefore, all other things are equal, it would pay 
better to raise wheat than to go into dairying. In the study 
made of Renville and Olmsted counties, however, transporta- 
tion charges cannot be said to have had any influence in de- 
termining the kind of farming in the two localities. Renville 
County has had advantages in transportation that exceed those 
of Olmsted or Freeborn. All of these counties ship to the large 
cities. A direct railway line runs through Renville County to 
St. Paul, and has given this region cheaper transportation than 
has been accorded the counties further south. If the southern 
counties were induced to carry on intensive diversified farming 
because of advantages in transportation, then surely Renville 
County had a still better reason. The influence of lower transpor- 
tation charges has been a general one, and has made possible the 
movement of all industries across the continent. The example of 
Renville County, however, as compared with the counties further 
south, indicates clearly that dairying has not been encouraged 
thereby rather than wheat-farming. It may nevertheless be noted 
in this connection that, if a new railroad is extended into a certain 
region, there v/ill be increased demand for the land of the locality 
and prices of land will go up. If the price of land be raised high 
enough, so that more intensive farming pays better than wheat- 
raising, we have a result that can be attributed to changes in 



THE MOVEMENT OF WHEAT-GROWING 351 

transportation. Facilities for transportation have brought about 
such changes, however, by raising the price of land. 

In conclusion, it may be emphasized that with the price of 
land high enough it is not dairy-farming as such that crowds out 
wheat-farming, but rather a more intensive that crowds out a 
less intensive kind of farming. 



III. LAND TENURE 
A. OWNERSHIP 

THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 

By the Honourable George C. Brodrick 

THE right of primogeniture, the most distinctive feature of 
the English family system, is partly the creation of law, and 
partly the growth of custom. It is the growth of custom so far as 
it has its origin in the voluntary action of feudal lords in making 
grants of land to be held by knight-service and so far as it now 
depends on the preference given by parents to eldest sons in 
wills and settlements of property. It is the creation of law so 
far as it is the fixed rule of succession to landed estates in case 
of intestacy ; and so far, moreover, as the custom which prevails 
in wills and settlements has been determined or favoured by the 
law. The practice of entailing, v/hich is often associated or con- 
founded with the right of primogeniture, is theoretically quite 
independent of that right, since it would be as easy and as con- 
sistent with legal principles to entail an estate upon the youngest 
son as to entail it upon the eldest son. Again, the power of 
settling is theoretically altogether distinct from the power of en- 
tailing, since it extends to personality as well as to land and 
might be employed to keep land tied up though entails should 
be abolished by law. Practically, however, settlements are the 
medium through which the entailing power is exercised, and 
form a powerful bulwark of primogeniture, inasmuch as they 
enable successive heads of families, owing to it their own posi- 
tion, to secure its maintenance far into the lifetime of an unborn 
generation. 

352 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 353 

I 

The so-called law of primogeniture, applicable to inheritance 
of land at intestato, is thus stated in Blackstone's V Commen- 
taries " : " That the male issue shall be admitted before the 
female, and that, when there are two or more males in equal 
degree, the eldest only shall inherit, but the females altogether." 
The right of primogeniture, then, in the descent of land, exclu- 
sively belongs to eldest sons, and has no place among daughters. 
This fact, in itself, has a material bearing on its historical origin. 
The luminous researches of Sir H. Maine into ancient law tend 
strongly to support the opinion of Blackstone and other authorities, 
that we owe this institution to feudal society, not in the earlier, 
but in the later stage of its development. " Primogeniture did 
not belong to the customs which the barbarians practised on their 
first establishment within the Roman Empire." It was, indeed, 
directly at variance with the principles of equality which appear 
to have regulated all the primitive communities whose organisa- 
tion, but lately revealed to historical students, furnishes the key 
to so many social problems otherwise insoluble. Even the patri- 
arch, though lord of the family possessions, " held them as 
trustee for his children and kindred." The male children were 
recognised both in German and Hindoo jurisprudence as l? co- 
proprietors with their father, and the endowment of the family 
could not be parted with, except by the consent of all its 
members." Still less had the eldest son any advantage over the 
rest, either in those primeval family groups which held their 
domains in joint ownership, or under that more advanced system 
of land tenure, where partitions took place on the death of a 
parent, according to rules indicated by Tacitus with his usual 
pregnant brevity : - Hasredes successoresque sui cuique liberi, et 
nullum testamentum : si liberi non sunt, proximus gradus in 
possessione, fratres, patrui, avunculi." Sir H. Maine, after sum- 
ming up the evidence on this part of the subject, concludes that 
" an absolutely equal division of assets among the male children 
at death is the practice most usual with society at the period 
when family dependency is in the first stages of disintegration." 



354 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

This conclusion, mainly founded on the legal history of 
Germany and India, is further confirmed by the great customary 
of Ireland, known as the Brehon Code, which not only adopts 
the rule of equal division but extends the right of inheritance 
to bastard children. It is hardly necessary to state that a like 
rule, but applying only to legitimate sons, was established by the 
Anglo-Saxon custom of gavelkind, which still prevails, as of com- 
mon right, over the greater part of Kent and, in a qualified form, 
governs the descent of copyhold lands in some other parts 
of the kingdom. The Athenian law of succession, under the' 
Solonian constitution, was the same in all essential respects with 
the Anglo-Saxon. All the sons inherited equally, upon the death 
of their father, and the only privilege reserved to the eldest was 
that of exercising the first choice in the division. The right of 
primogeniture, as Blackstone observes, seems to have been main- 
tained by the Jews alone, among the oldest races whose laws are 
known to us ; and even the Mosaic law assigned no more than 
a double portion to the eldest son, while the " birthright " of 
pre-Mosaic times, as appears from the case of Reuben, might be 
set aside by the father. 

It is equally certain that primogeniture is not derived from 
Roman law — the real fountain head of so many institutions and 
ideas once supposed to be indigenous. According to Roman law 
" when the succession was ab intestato, and the group (of co- 
heirs) consisted of the children of the deceased, they each took 
an equal share of the property ; nor, though males had at one 
time some advantages over females, is there the slightest trace 
of primogeniture." Intestacy, it is true, was rare among the 
Romans ; but Sir H. Maine has given cogent reasons for believ- 
ing that Roman wills, so far from being made for the purpose 
of accumulating property upon one representative of the family, 
were usually made for the contrary purpose of dividing the in- 
heritance more equitably among all the children and defeating 
the rule which excluded sons already emancipated from succession 
ab intestato. 

We may assume, then, with as much confidence as is possible 
in inquiries of this nature, that primogeniture is essentially a 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 355 

feudal institution. It cannot be traced back to an age preceding 
feudalism ; it was fully established in those countries, and those 
only, which are known to have adopted the feudal system, and it 
has been abandoned, for the most part, by those countries which 
have undergone a complete de-feudalising process. Moreover, 
though we are unable to specify the exact mode whereby this 
innovation was accomplished in the Dark Ages, we are able to 
account for it completely by the peculiar circumstances of that 
warlike and chaotic period. "While land," says Adam Smith, 
*' is considered as the means only of subsistence and enjoyment, 
the natural law of succession divides it, like them, among all 
the children of the family ; . . . but when land was considered 
as the means, not of subsistence merely, but of power and protec- 
tion, it was thought better that it should descend undivided to 
one." Such is the true historical explanation, as it is also the 
sound economical explanation, of the rise of primogeniture. In 
ancient Rome, no less than in ancient Athens, the State was 
everything and the individual nothing ; public rights dwarfed and 
overshadowed private rights ; and family pride, intense as it was, 
could not indulge the passion of territorial aggrandisement, lest 
it should encounter the fierce jealousy of the republican spirit. 
In communities of the Oriental and old German type, different 
causes produced the same effect; land was regarded as "a 
means of subsistence " for all the members of a primitive family 
or village, and the idea of vassals or tenants holding under a 
lord could scarcely have been conceived. Even when the German 
tribes first conquered the Roman Empire, there is reason to 
believe that equality was the general principle of division. Each 
great chief, however, naturally received a larger share, and, being 
unable to cultivate the whole of it for himself, granted a part to 
retainers on conditions of military service. It is from grants of 
this kind, and from "honorary feuds" to which titles of nobility 
were attached, that primogeniture, as a rule of succession, is held 
by most jurists to have directly sprung. The original grantee 
of a fief, unlike the owners of "allodial" property, was indebted 
to no family law for his new possession. He derived it solely 
from the bounty of his chief, whose interest it was that it 



356 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

should always be held by some person capable of serving in 
war, as well as of discharging the less definite obligations, in 
lieu of rent, which afterwards became regular legal incidents of 
tenure in chivalry. In most instances the eldest son would be 
the one most capable, on the father's death, of undertaking his 
feudal liabilities ; but this was not the only reason why primo- 
geniture gradually superseded joint ownership and equal division. 
In those wild and unsettled times, it was as necessary for the 
family as for the lord that it should have one acknowledged head 
to govern it, one standard round which all its members and 
dependants could rally, one judgment-seat to which all disputes 
could be referred. The disorganised state of society compelled a 
recurrence to something like the patriarchal system of family 
government ; but whereas that system had developed into the 
rule of equal inheritance, feudalism, under a different order of 
conditions, became the parent of primogeniture. 

The eldest son, therefore, was invested with his exceptional 
privileges under the feudal system not because he was supposed 
to have any exceptional rights but rather because he was sup- 
posed to be the most eligible for the performance of exceptional 
duties. He was not, however, invariably preferred ; and we 
know that merit had far more to do with inheritance in the first 
age of feudalism than it has with succession to estates or titles 
in our own days. The Crown itself was then, in some degree, 
elective in every feudal monarchy ; and it is more than probable 
that fiefs, like the chieftainship of Scotch and Irish clans, some- 
times descended to younger brothers and sometimes to uncles. 
When they descended, as they usually did, to eldest sons, they 
assuredly brought with them far heavier burdens and far more 
limited rights of proprietorship than we are wont to associate with 
the position of a landowner. The life of a German baron under 
the Othos, or of a Norman baron under the Conqueror and his im- 
mediate successors, was a life. of incessant toil and anxiety, seldom 
relieved by leisure or enjoyment ; and the younger brother who 
had entered a monastery or turned soldier of fortune had perhaps 
little cause to envy the lord of several castles, whose revenues, 
paid in kind, were devoured by hungry and turbulent retainers. 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 357 

It is impossible to fix the precise year, or even the precise 
reign, in which primogeniture was substituted for gavelkind in 
the common law of England. Blackstone, who regards this 
feature of mature feudalism as introduced by the Conqueror, 
points out that, under the so-called laws of Henry I, the eldest 
son had no pre-eminence beyond the right of appropriating the 
"capital fee" held by military tenure; and that so late as the 
reign of Henry II socage fees continued to be partible among 
the male children. At all events, the present rule of succession 
had become almost universal, except in Kent, before the end 
of the thirteenth century, by which time, also, the custom of 
entailing, in its most ancient form, was already established. 
Entails created in this form conferred no indefeasible right 
of inheritance. When a fee was granted to a man "and the 
heirs male of his body," it was held that, upon the birth of a 
son, the grantee might sell the land, or charge it with incum- 
brances, or forfeit it by treason, so as to bar the interest of his 
own issue, though, if he did none of these acts, it would descend 
according to the express terms of the grant. This full liberty 
of alienation is described by Mr. Neate, in his treatise on the 
Law of Entail, as characteristic of true feudalism, which denied 
the son any vested right in the estate so acquired by the father. 
The famous statute De Donis (13 Edward I, cap. 1), by which 
the succession of the issue and the ultimate reversion of the 
donor on failure of issue were secured against the risk of 
being defeated by alienation, is viewed by the same author as 
a legislative encroachment on feudal principles. The entails 
made under this statute for nearly two hundred years created, 
in fact, a perpetual series of life-estates, and are stigmatised 
in a well-known passage of Blackstone's " Commentaries " : 

Children grew disobedient when they knew they could not be set aside ; farmers 
were ousted of their leases made by tenants-in-tail ; . . . creditors were defrauded 
of their debts ; . . . innumerable latent entails were produced to deprive pur- 
chasers of the lands they had fairly bought ; . . . and treasons were encouraged, 
as estates-tail were not liable to forfeiture longer than for the tenant's life. 

Though it may well be doubted whether the greater part of 
England was subject to entails. under De Donis, the fact of such 



358 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

consequences having resulted from them has never been dis- 
puted. Accordingly, when the absurd technical device of a 
common recovery was invented to break these entails in the 
reign of Edward IV, Parliament took no steps to counteract it, 
and in the reign of Henry VIII expressly authorised a tenant-in- 
tail to bar his own issue by a proceeding known as a " fine." 

It has not been sufficiently realised that during the period 
between the introduction of these methods for breaking entails 
and the institution of family settlements in the seventeenth 
century the ownership of family property in this country was 
practically more absolute, and the disposition of it less re- 
stricted, than it had been for two centuries before, or than it 
has since become. Each successive tenant-in-tail, by levying a 
fine or suffering a common recovery, was able to convert his 
estate into a fee-simple, and as the use of life-estates in tying 
up land had not yet been discovered, the head of a family 
was usually in this position. The agrarian history of this re- 
markable period yet remains to be written ; but it is impossible 
not to connect the rapid growth and singular independence 
of the English gentry and yeomanry under the later Tudors 
and earlier Stuarts, with the limitation of entails and freedom 
of alienation which thus characterised it. In course of time, 
however, family pride, aided by lawyers, contrived new expe- 
dients for checking alienation by sale or subdivision by will, 
and placing the right of primogeniture on a secure basis. The 
first of these expedients in logical, if not in chronological, 
order was the mere substitution of such words as " first son " 
or " eldest son " for " heir of his body," in deeds of settlement. 
The legal effect of this was that instead of the father taking 
an estate-tail under the settlement, which he might have forth- 
with converted into a fee-simple, he took only a life-estate, and 
had no control over the remainder (whether for life or in tail) 
given by the same instrument to his eldest son. This idea 
was developed by conferring, so far as possible, life-estates 
instead of estates-tail on the whole first generation of persons 
included in a family settlement ; so that, whereas a tenant-in- 
tail once in possession could not be deprived of his power to 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 359 

become master of the property, the acquisition of this power 
might be deferred to a second, or even to a later generation. 
But, for reasons known to lawyers, that object could not have 
been accomplished effectually without a further expedient de- 
vised by Sir Orlando Bridgman and Sir Geoffrey Palmer 
during the Civil Wars, and generally adopted after the Res- 
toration. This was the notable contrivance of V trustees to 
preserve contingent remainders," of which it is enough to say 
that it protected the interests of tenants-in-tail against the risk 
of being defeated by the wrongful act of preceding life-tenants. 
From this epoch, rather than from " Chudleigh's case," which 
is cited by Lord Bacon, must be dated the modern type of 
settlement. Still, the principle was maintained that an entail 
might be cut off by a tenant-in-tail of full age, though it was 
technically necessary for him, unless in possession, to obtain 
the concurrence of the person (generally his own father) in 
whom the immediate freehold was vested. This principle was 
violated by the legislature for the first time, as Mr. Neate 
shows, in the great act of William IV, which created the 
" protector of the settlement." Since this act it has been a 
positive rule of law, and no longer a mere technical necessity, 
that, when a tenant-in-tail under a settlement wishes to bar the 
entail completely, he must obtain the consent of the " pro- 
tector," that is, in legal phrase, of the person who has the first 
estate of freehold prior to his own estate-tail. 

II 

We are now in a position to review the actual operation of 
primogeniture in this country, whether under the express terms 
of settlements and wills, or by virtue of the law prescribing 
the course of descent on intestacy. Unfortunately, the statistical 
materials requisite for such a review are still very imperfect. 
No register of settlements, or of other dealings affecting land, 
exists as yet for the greater part of England, though such a 
register is kept in Scotland, and very conflicting estimates have 
been formed of the proportion which settled bears to unsettled 
property. Wills, it is true, are preserved, but they do not show 



360 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the extent of land devised by them ; nor is there any means of 
ascertaining, with any approach to accuracy, how far they are 
employed to aggravate, and how far to mitigate, the inequality 
arising from the custom of settling landed estates upon eldest 
sons. It might have been expected, however, that a complete 
record of the land devolving annually by descent would be kept 
for State purposes and public information. Instead of this, no 
distinction appears to be drawn, even between land which passes 
by will and land which passes by settlement, being equally 
chargeable with succession duty ; while, for a like reason, no 
separate account is published of land transmitted to heirs by the 
law of intestacy. A still more extraordinary, not to say dis- 
graceful, cause of the mystery which has so long surrounded our 
land-system is the circumstance that, until the present year 
(1876), there were no official documents showing the number of 
landowners in Great Britain, and the distribution of the soil 
among them. With the new Domesday Book in our hands, 
we can ascertain how the soil is actually distributed in every 
county* of England and Wales, but how far the law and cus- 
tom of primogeniture may have contributed to produce this dis- 
tribution remains even now a speculative question. Still there 
are certain facts which are matters of common notoriety and 
others which are within the general cognizance of persons con- 
versant with land, by the light of which it is possible to arrive 
at some trustworthy conclusions respecting the dominion of 
primogeniture over social life in England. 

In the first place, it is material to observe that personal 
property, which is exempt from the law of primogeniture, is 
little affected by the custom, save where it is thought necessary 
to keep up the dignity of a family place. Rich capitalists who 
do not invest in land, or aspire to found a county family, 
seldom make an eldest son, and of those who do indulge this 
ambition, some prefer to buy a moderate estate for each of their 
sons. Still more habitually is equal division recognised as 
the dictate of natural equity by the great body of merchants, 
tradespeople, and professional men, as well as by the labouring 
classes throughout Great Britain and Ireland ; in short, by the 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 361 

middle and lower orders of society, "divorced from the soil" 
in this country, and by the landless members of the upper 
orders. Nor must it be forgotten that, by English law, ordinary 
leaseholds, whether they consist of lands or houses; count as 
personalty and are distributed as such on intestacy ; whereas 
money in trust for investment in land counts as realty and falls 
under the same rule of inheritance. Vast leasehold interests 
are constantly included in settlements of personalty, and few of 
these settlements, whether made on the marriage of a duke's 
younger son or on the marriage of a shopkeeper, exhibit any 
bias towards primogeniture. In most instances, the funds are 
directed to be invested for the benefit of all the sons and 
daughters of the marriage equally, though a power is usually 
reserved to the parents of modifying this distribution by V ap- 
pointment," at their own discretion. The same course is gen- 
erally followed by testators possessed of small landed estates 
purchased with their own earnings, who, for the most part, 
devise their land to trustees for sale, and direct the proceeds 
to be divided among their children. In families of the yeoman 
class, the ordinary practice appears to be that hereditary property 
should go to the eldest son, but that, in accordance with the 
Scotch rule of legitim, younger children should be compensated, 
so far as possible, for their disinherison and that, if burdened 
with mortgages, the land should be sold for the equal benefit of 
all. Even the rude wills and settlements drawn up by priests 
or schoolmasters for Irish peasant farmers, among whom the 
instincts of proprietorship are cherished in their intensest form, 
embody the principle of gavelkind and not of primogeniture. 
Though often destitute of any legal validity, and purporting to 
dispose of an interest which has no existence in law, they usually 
disclose a clear intention to place the younger children on a 
tolerably equal footing with the eldest son, either by the sub- 
divisions of which Irish landlords complain so much, or by heavy 
charges on the tenant-right. 

It may, therefore, be safely affirmed that primogeniture, as 
it prevails in England, has not its root in popular sentiment, or 
in the sentiment of any large class, except the landed aristocracy 



362 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and those who are struggling to enter its ranks. By the great 
majority of this class, embracing the whole nobility, the squires 
of England, the lairds of Scotland, and the Irish gentry of 
every degree, primogeniture is accepted almost as a fundamen- 
tal law of nature, to which the practice of entails only gives 
a convenient and effectual expression. Adam Smith remarks 
that ,f in Scotland more than one-fifth, perhaps more than one- 
third, part of the whole lands of the country, are at present 
supposed to be under strict entail" — that is, entailed under 
a system introduced in 1685, which barred alienation far more 
inexorably than was permitted by the English rule against 
perpetuities. Mr. McCulloch, writing in 1849, calculated that 
at least half Scotland was then entailed, though an act passed 
in the previous year had already facilitated disentailing by 
provisions borrowed from the English law. In England, where 
so much land is in the hands of corporations or trustees for 
public objects, and where almost all deeds relating to land are 
in private custody, we cannot venture to speak with so much 
confidence on this point. Considering, however, that in most 
counties large estates predominate over small, and that large 
estates, by the general testimony of the legal profession, are 
almost always entailed either by will or settlement, while small 
estates, if hereditary, are very often entailed, there is no rash- 
ness in concluding, in accordance with the evidence given before 
Mr. Pusey's committee, that a much larger area is under settle- 
ment than at the free disposal of individual landowners. 

It has frequently been asserted that a mere fraction of the 
land which yearly changes hands on death is governed by the 
law of intestacy. There are no adequate means of testing this 
assertion, but the probability is that it overstates the case. 
There is scarcely a wealthy or noble family of any consider- 
able antiquity in which the estates have not at some time de- 
scended to an heir or coparceners by the effect of this law, 
and such an event is far more likely to happen in families less 
guided by the advice of solicitors. What is really true is that 
landowners seldom deliberately intend to die intestate and that 
most descents by operation of law are the result of negligence 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 363 

or misadventure. A man, perhaps, makes several contradictory 
wills, all of which prove to be void for want of proper attes- 
tation or by reason of his incompetence ; or he makes a good 
will that does not cover the whole of his property ; or, having 
recently purchased a small freehold, he is just about to devise 
it, when he is suddenly cut off. The known wishes of an 
intestate may be carried into effect by arrangement within the 
family or an amicable suit in equity, without the public be- 
coming aware of the fact, especially if those wishes should 
coincide with the course of descent at common law. Several 
notable examples of the contrary kind, where the known wishes 
of the intestate and the plain requirements of justice were griev- 
ously violated by the law of primogeniture, have been cited by 
Mr. Locke King and others. Upon the whole, however, our pre- 
sumption must be that, whatever may be the indirect influence of 
that law on the minds of settlors and testators, its direct influence 
in promoting the aggregation of land is by no means extensive. 
We have next to examine the mode whereby the right of 
primogeniture is secured in ordinary settlements of landed 
property, or, less frequently, in the wills of landed proprietors 
who have enjoyed an absolute power of disposition. This mode 
is thus explained in the standard work of Mr. Joshua Williams, 
on the Law of Real Property : 

In families where the estates are kept up from one generation to another, 
settlements are made every few years for this purpose ; thus, in the event of a 
marriage, a life-estate merely is given to the husband ; the wife has an allow- 
ance for pin-money during the marriage, and a rent-charge or annuity by way 
of jointure for her life, in case she should survive her husband. Subject to this 
jointure, and to the payment of such sums as may be agreed on for the por- 
tions of the daughters and younger sons of the marriage, the eldest son who 
may be born of the marriage is made by the settlement tenant-in-tail. In 
case of his decease without issue, it is provided that the second son, and then 
the third, should in like manner be tenant-in-tail ; and so on to the others ; 
and in default of sons, the estate is usually given to the daughters ; not suc- 
cessively, however, but as tf tenants in common in tail," with " cross remainders " 
in tail. By this means the estate is tied up till some tenant-in-tail attains the 
age of twenty-one years ; when he is able, with the consent of his father, who 
is tenant for life, to bar the entail with all the remainders. Dominion is thus 
again acquired over the property, which dominion is usually exercised in a 



364 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

re-settlement on the next generation ; and thus the property is preserved in 
the family. Primogeniture, therefore, as it obtains among the landed gentry 
of England, is a custom only, and not a right ; though there can be no doubt 
that the custom has originated in the right which was enjoyed by the eldest 
son, as heir to his father, in those days when estates-tail could not be barred. 

To complete this explanation, it should be added that almost 
all modern settlements contain a power of sale, enabling the 
trustees, with the consent of the tenant in possession, to sell 
portions or even the whole of the property, and to re-invest 
the purchase-money in other land. Under these powers out- 
lying estates, or estates which may have come into the family 
collaterally, are very commonly sold off, and the produce is 
either applied in rounding off the central domain, or held upon 
trust for the same persons as would have received the income 
of the land, till it is sooner or later absorbed in paying charges 
which must otherwise have been raised upon the entire prop- 
erty. In default of such powers being inserted in the settle- 
ment, the Court of Chancery may direct sales, with the consent 
of the parties interested ; and it may be asserted that with the 
exception of a very few domains inalienably settled, like Blen- 
heim, on a particular family, no estate in England is literally 
unsaleable. It should also be remarked that a settlement of 
the kind described by Mr. Joshua Williams implies that full 
control has been acquired over the land before it is executed. 
For this purpose, most family properties are disentailed in each 
generation with a view to re-settlement, by the joint act of the 
life-owner for the time being as "protector," and' of his eldest 
son as tenant-in-tail in reversion. The former is actuated by a 
desire to perpetuate the entail by fresh limitations, to a period 
as distant as the law permits, and often gains, in the process 
of re-settlement, the means of discharging his own debts or 
making provision for those who have claims upon him. The 
son, on the other hand, taking a life-estate in lieu of his estate- 
tail, forfeits the prospect of becoming master of the property 
on his father's death ; but in consideration of this sacrifice, he 
usually receives an immediate rent-charge by way of allowance, 
and is placed in a position to marry early. 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 365 

It is well known that in families which maintain the practice 
of entailing, the disparity of wealth between the eldest son and 
younger children is, almost invariably, prodigious. The charge 
for the portions of younger children, when created by a marriage 
settlement, is created at a time when it is quite uncertain how 
many -such children there will be. It is rarely double of the 
annual rental, and often does not exceed the annual rental ; 
indeed, in the case of very large estates, it may fall very far 
short of it. In other words, supposing there to be six children, 
the income of each younger brother or sister from a family 
property of ^5000 a year will consist of the interest on a sum 
of ;£iooo or possibly ^2000; and even if there were but 
one such younger child, his income from the property would 
probably not be more than one-twentieth or one-thirtieth of 
his elder brother's rental. Nor does this represent the whole 
difference between their respective shares of the family endow- 
ment ; for the eldest son, who pays no probate duty, finds a 
residence and garden at his disposal, which he may either 
occupy rent-free or let for his own private advantage. Of 
course, where a father possesses a large amount of personalty, 
he may partially redress the balance ; and there are exceptionally 
conscientious landowners who feel it a duty to save out of their 
own life incomes for younger children. But it is to be feared 
that accumulations in the funds are too often employed not 
exclusively nor mainly to increase the pittances allotted for 
portions, but, on the principle of "to him that hath shall be 
given," to relieve the land of some outstanding incumbrance 
and to aid the eldest son in conforming to a conventional 
standard of dignity. The same imaginary obligation to pre- 
serve that degree of state and luxury which is expected of 
country gentlemen with a certain status and acreage, offers 
an obstacle to saving, which the majority find insuperable. 
Besides, nine out of ten men who inherit their estates burdened 
with charges for their father's widow and younger children 
would think it Quixotic to lay by out of their available in- 
come, as men of business would do, for the benefit of their 
own younger children. Hence the proverbial slenderness of a 



366 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

younger son's fortune in families which have a "place," and 
especially in those which have a title, to be kept up. As for 
the daughters, their rank is apt to be reckoned as a substantive 
part of their fortunes, and not only are their marriage portions 
infinitely smaller than would be considered proper in families 
of equal affluence in the mercantile class, but it is not -unfre- 
quently provided that, unless they have children, their property 
shall ultimately revert to their eldest brother. 

To say that primogeniture, thus organised, has a direct ten- 
dency to prevent the dispersion of land, is only to say that 
it fulfils the purpose for which it was instituted. It is hardly 
less evident that it must have the further effect of promoting 
the aggregation of land in a small and constantly decreasing 
number of hands. The periodical renewal of entails is in- 
tended to secure, and does secure, ancestral properties against 
the risk of being broken up ; and, practically, they very seldom 
come into the market, except as a consequence of scandalous 
waste or gambling on the part of successive life-owners. The 
typical English family estate is that which, like Sir Roger de 
Coverley's, neither waxes nor wanes in the course of generations, 
and there are still many such estates in counties remote from 
London. But there is nothing to check the cumulative aug- 
mentation of ancestral properties by new purchases of land, 
which is the darling passion of so many proprietors. There is 
always some angulus iste to be annexed and brought within the 
park palings or the ring-fence on the first good opportunity ; 
and scarcely a day passes without some yeoman of ancient 
lineage being erased from the roll of landowners by the com- 
petition of his more powerful neighbour. Not that any tyranny 
or unfair dealing is involved in this process of aggrandisement, 
which is the consequence of economical laws quite as simple as 
that of natural selection in the animal creation. The yeoman 
sells his patrimony either because he has ruined himself by 
drinking or improvidence, or because he finds that by turning 
it into money he can largely improve his income and the future 
expectations of his family. The nobleman or squire buys it 
at a price which is not commercially remunerative, either to 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 367 

prevent its being covered with buildings, or because it lies 
conveniently for his own agricultural designs, or because he 
wants to extend his influence in the county ; for one or all of 
which reasons it is worth more to him than to any one else. 
It is known in some parts of the country that it is utterly vain 
to bid against the great territorial lord of the district, whose 
agent is instructed to buy up all properties for sale, regardless 
of expense. In other parts of the country, men who have 
made their fortunes in trade are equally covetous of land, which 
for them is the one sure passport to social consideration, and 
equally anxious to keep it together by entails. Thus by the 
normal operation of supply and demand large estates are per- 
petually swallowing up small estates, while, by a suspension of 
that operation through the law and custom of primogeniture, 
they are themselves preserved, to a great extent, from disso- 
lution. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that a 
counter-tendency, no less natural and legitimate, partly neutral- 
ises this gravitation of smaller towards larger aggregates of 
land. The enormous rise in the value of all sites within easy 
reach of great towns sometimes offers to great landowners an 
inducement to sell which they cannot resist. In this way, 
under the powers of sale already mentioned, distant and de- 
tached portions of great estates are frequently passing in large 
blocks into the hands of new landlords, generally of the mer- 
cantile class, or are bought up by land-jobbers and sold, in 
petty blocks, to retired tradesmen. At the same time, the 
acquisition of minute plots by the working classes has been 
facilitated of late by the agency of freehold-land societies, 
originally established for political objects, and would doubtless 
prevail to a much greater extent but for the exorbitance of law- 
charges on small purchases of land. 

In default of authoritative statistics, the loosest and vaguest 
conjectures were long current respecting the division of owner- 
ship caused by these divergent tendencies. It was confidently 
stated, for instance, that, whereas in the latter part of the last 
century this country was divided among 200,000 landowners, 
it had come to be divided among no more than 30,000. No 



368 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

proof was thought necessary to support the former assertion ; 
the latter was supported by a proof which, on examination, 
turned out to be perfectly worthless. In the occupation returns 
of the census for 1861, only 30,766 persons described them- 
selves as land-proprietors, and these figures were most persist- 
ently quoted as official evidence on the subject, in the face 
of the patent fact that above half of the whole number were 
females. The probable explanation of this circumstance is, that 
women owning land feel a pride in recording their ownership ; 
whereas thousands of male landowners returned themselves as 
peers, members of Parliament, bankers, merchants, or private 
gentlemen. At all events, the mere existence of so palpable a 
flaw in the return utterly destroyed its value for the purposes 
of statistical argument. Equally reckless assertions were made 
in support of the contrary opinion, and until the present year 
it was regarded as open to doubt whether the whole body of 
English landowners, properly so called, amounted to 30,000 or 
to 300,000. 

These doubts are at last set at rest. It is true, the return 
lately issued by the Local Government Board purports to be 
no more than " proximately accurate," and a very cursory 
inspection suffices to disclose numerous errors of detail which 
might have been avoided by more careful revision. Great and 
inevitable difficulties were found to beset the definition of 
ownership, and one of these difficulties had to be solved by 
treating as owners all holders of leases for more than ninety-nine 
years or for lives, with a right of renewal, while other lease- 
holders were excluded. Moreover, the return does not cover the 
metropolis ; and since it is based on lists separately prepared 
for each county and each rating-district, it must be taken as 
subject to large deduction for double entries. Nevertheless, 
its general results, translated into round numbers, may be 
accepted as conclusive for the purpose of our present inquiry. 
They exhibit a gross total of 972,836 freehold properties, 
which probably represents a net total of above 900,000 free- 
holders in England 'and Wales. But of these so-called prop- 
erties, no less than 703,289 are plots of less than one acre, 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 369 

while 269,547 consist of one acre*and upwards. Considering 
how large a proportion of gardens and grounds forming part of 
business premises exceed one acre in extent, it would certainly 
have been convenient if some higher limit, not less than five 
acres, had been fixed as the minimum area of a bona fide 
landed property. However, the voluminous tables here set forth 
contain ample materials for a more complete analysis than 
is furnished in the official summary, and some of their more 
important revelations have already been made public. 1 It appears 
that although nearly a million persons may own the sites of 
their own homesteads, 42,524 is the extreme number of prop- 
erties above 100 acres each, the number of their owners being 
considerably less ; that nearly one-eighth of all the enclosed 
land in England and Wales is in the hands of 100 owners ; 
that nearly one-sixth is in the hands of less than 280 owners ; 
and that above one-fourth is in the hands of 710 owners. Nor 
is this all ; for it must not be forgotten that among the dukes 
and other great noblemen who head this territorial roll there 
are several who also derive a vast rental from Scotland, Ireland, 
or the metropolis, whereas among the nominal proprietors below 
one acre there is an indefinite number of mere faggot-voters. 

A close investigation of the returns for single counties fully 
bears out these conclusions, and places the inequalities of 
landed proprietorship in a still more striking light. Take, for 
instance, Northumberland and Nottinghamshire, which stand 
next to each other in alphabetical order, but differ widely from 
each other in the character of their population. In North- 
umberland, the number of owners below one acre is stated at 
10,036, but they own no more than 1424 acres between them, 

1 See the elaborate statistics published in the Spectator of February 12, Feb- 
ruary 19, and March 4, 1876. These statistics, having been tested by an inde- 
pendent examination of the figures, seem to be substantially correct. A further 
analysis published in the Times of April 7, 1876, shows three proprietors own- 
ing above 100,000 acres, two between 80,000 and 100,000, two between 70,000 
and 80,000, three between 60,000 and 70,000, nine between 50,000 and 60,000, 
eight between 40,000 and 50,000, twenty-eight between 30,000 and 40,000, and 
forty-five between 20,000 and 30,000. It also states that " 874 owners hold 
9,367,133 acres, 2689 owners hold 14,896,324 acres, 10,207 owners hold 22,013,208 
acres, 42,524 owners hold 28,840,550 acres." 



370 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

so that each possesses, on #n average, less than one-seventh of 
an acre. In Nottinghamshire, 9891 petty landowners rule over 
1266 acres between them, possessing, on an average, about 
one-eighth of an acre apiece. If we now look at the higher 
end of the scale, the contrast is startling. Nearly three-fifths of 
Northumberland is in the hands of forty-four proprietors, nearly 
naif is in the hands of twenty-six proprietors, and far more 
than one-seventh is in the hands of one proprietor, the Duke 
of Northumberland, who has also landed estates in other 
counties. In Nottinghamshire, again, nearly two-fifths of the 
whole acreage belongs to fourteen proprietors, and above one- 
fourth to five proprietors. If the division of landed property 
over the rest of England and Wales corresponded with the 
division of landed property in Northumberland and Nottingham- 
shire, one-half of the whole country would be in the hands of 
about 1000 proprietors, and these proprietors, by virtue of their 
family connections and social ascendency, would exercise a power 
far more than commensurate with their acreage. 

The inference must be that primogeniture, operating for 
many generations, has reduced the landed aristocracy of England 
and Wales to a body even smaller than had been commonly 
supposed, but that in those classes which do not maintain the 
"custom of primogeniture landed property is broken up into a 
multitude of small parcels. The owners of such parcels are, 
for the most part, not yeomen, but shop-keepers and artisans, 
too humble and too dependent for their livelihood on urban 
trade and industry to fill any perceptible space in the rural 
economy of this country. That economy is so familiar to all of 
us that we scarcely recognise the peculiar characteristics of it, 
which foreigners notice as unique in modern Europe. To an 
Englishman born and bred in the country, it appears the natural 
order of things, if not the fixed ordinance of Providence, that in 
each parish there should be a dominant resident landowner, 
called a squire, unless he should chance to be a peer, invested 
with an authority over its inhabitants, which, as Mr. Neate 
contends, " the Norman lords, in the fulness of their power," 
never had the right of exercising. This potenate, who, luckily 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 371 

for his dependants, is usually a kind-hearted and tolerably 
educated gentleman, concentrates in himself a variety of rights 
and prerogatives, which, in the aggregate, amount to little short 
of patriarchal sovereignty. The clergyman, who is by far the 
greatest man in the parish next to himself, is usually his 
nominee and often his kinsman. The farmers, who are almost 
the only employers of labour besides himself, are his tenants-at- 
will, and, possibly, his debtors. The petty tradespeople of the 
village community rent under him, and, if they did not, might 
be crushed by his displeasure at any moment. The labourers, of 
course, live in his cottages, unless, before the Union Charge- 
ability Act, he should have managed to keep them on his 
neighbour's estate ; but this is by no means his only hold upon 
them. They are absolutely at his mercy for the privilege of 
hiring allotments at an >•' accommodation " rent ; they sometimes 
work on the home farm, and are glad to get jobs from his 
bailiff, especially in the winter ; they look to him for advice in 
worldly matters as they would consult the parson in spiritual 
matters ; they believe that his good word could procure them 
any favour or advancement for their children on which they may 
set their hearts, and they know that his frown may bring ruin 
upon them and theirs. Nothing passes in the parish without 
being reported to him. If a girl should go wrong, or a young 
man should consort with poachers, or a stranger of doubtful 
repute should be admitted as a lodger, the squire is sure to hear 
of it, and his decree, so far as his labourers and cottage tenants 
are concerned, is as good as law. He is, in fact, the local repre- 
sentative of the law itself, and, as a magistrate, has often the 
means of legally enforcing the policy which, as landlord, he 
may have adopted. Add to all this the influence which he may 
and ought to acquire as the leading supporter and manager of 
the parish school, as the most liberal subscriber to parochial 
charities, as the patron of village games and the dispenser of 
village treats, not to speak of the motherly services which may 
be rendered by his wife, or the boyish fellowship which may 
grow up between the youth of the village and the young gentle- 
men at the Hall, and it is difficult to imagine a position of 



372 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

greater real power and responsibility. Yet even this does not 
exhaust the special advantages and prerogatives attached to the 
position of an English country gentleman. Until very lately, he 
alone was lawfully eligible to a seat in Parliament, and even now 
his class, which may be said to engross the Upper House, pre- 
dominates conspicuously in the Lower. By this class the whole 
machinery of county taxation, county government, and county 
judicature is regulated and worked. In those of them who may 
be magistrates is vested ex officio a right of taking part in poor- 
law administration ; in their gift is a great variety of lucrative 
county offices, and the wealthiest magnate of the greatest manu- 
facturing town is " nobody in the county " until he shall have 
secured their good opinion. That powers so vast and so arbitrary 
have not been more frequently abused is an honour to our national 
character ; nor can we reflect without some feeling of pride on 
the admirable manner in which the ]■ duties of property " are 
acknowledged and discharged on thousands of English estates. 
But this must not lead us to idealise this form of rural economy 
as our forefathers idealised the British Constitution, to ignore 
the grave defects and anomalies inherent in it, or lightly to 
dismiss the experience of other nations as inapplicable to our 
social condition. 

Ill 

The reports on land tenure drawn up for the Foreign Of- 
fice in the years 1 869-1 870, by Her Majesty's representatives 
in the principal countries of Europe and the United States of 
America, contain a mine of precious materials on foreign land 
systems. Though specially directed to points bearing directly on 
the objects of the Irish Land Bill, they include a large mass 
of evidence on such questions as the descent of landed property 
on intestacy, and the general tendency of various codes to favour 
the accumulation or dispersion of land. A few extracts from the 
results thus obtained may be of some value in illustrating an 
inquiry into the law and custom of primogeniture in England. 

In France, as all economists are aware, " the land is chiefly 
occupied by small proprietors, who form the great majority 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 373 

throughout the country," so that of some 7,500,000 proprietors, 
about 5,000,000 are estimated to average six acres each, while 
only 50,000 average 600 acres. This morcellement is the direct 
and foreseen consequence of the partible succession enforced 
by the Code Napoleon, under which all children inherit the 
bulk of their father's property equally, without distinction of 
age or sex, a testator with one child being allowed to dispose 
of half, a testator with two children of one-third only, and a 
testator with three children of one-quarter. The dismember- 
ment of estates thus produced is progressive. " With some 
rare exceptions, all the great properties have been gradually 
broken up, and even the first and second classes " (averaging 
600 and 60 acres respectively) •• are fast merging into the 
third." Volumes of controversy have not exhausted the argu- 
ments either for or against the French law of inheritance, and 
it is instructive to remark that, whereas it used to be attacked 
on the ground that it stimulated the increase of population to a 
frightful extent, it is now attacked on the ground that it keeps 
the population almost stationary. In France itself, if we may 
trust the report, " the prevalent public opinion as to the 
advantages or disadvantages of the tenure of land by small pro- 
prietors is decidedly that it has been advantageous to the pro- 
duction of the soil, and has tended to the improvement of the 
material condition of the agricultural population." It is believed, 
moreover, that subdivision " conduces to political as well as 
social order, because the greater the number of the proprietors, 
the greater is the guarantee for the respect of property, and the 
less likely are the masses to nourish revolutionary and sub- 
versive designs." The reporter, Mr. Sackville West, appears 
to share these views, but he is careful to express his concurrence 
in M. Lavergne's opinion that morcellement has now reached 
the limit of safety, and that "an unlimited partition of the 
small properties as they already exist would be productive of 
serious evil." 

The elaborate report on land tenure in Prussia and the 
North German Confederation, by Mr. Harriss Gastrell, attests 
the same preponderance of public opinion in favour of small 



374 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

proprietorship, which is encouraged by the law. " In cases of 
intestacy the law divides all property, including land, in certain 
proportions, among widow and children ; or equally amongst 
the children, if there be no widow," and no disposition can 
deprive the " natural heirs " of their claim to a fixed allotment, 
sometimes amounting to as much as two-thirds of the whole. 
Though subject to these limitations, "the custom of making 
a will is almost universal," but "the restrictions on land by 
settlements and the like are much less than in England." The 
consequence is that in the entire province of Prussia, out of 
about 185,000 freehold estates, rather more than half do not 
exceed twenty acres in extent. 

" Wurtemburg is remarkable as the country where subdivision 
of land is carried to the greatest extreme," containing, as it 
does, some 280,000 peasant owners, with less than five acres 
each, and about 160,000 proprietors of estates above five acres. 
Upon intestacy, the land is equally divided among all the 
children, male and female. The father, however, seems to be 
allowed full liberty of disposition over the property, so long as 
a certain moderate portion defined by law (pflicht-theil) is re- 
served for each child. On the smaller peasant farms, " when, 
in accordance with the will of the father, one child becomes 
owner of all the paternal land, an estimate is formed on a 
footing rather favourable to him, and he compensates the brothers 
and sisters by equal sums of money. The daughters, however, 
are more frequently on their marriage allotted an equal share 
of land ; and, as the husband is probably the proprietor of a 
piece of land elsewhere in the commune, the intersection and 
subdivision of the land goes on increasing." On the larger 
peasant farms, the custom of primogeniture has encroached still 
further on that of equal division. Here, the eldest son commonly 
succeeds to the whole property, "often in the father's lifetime. 
When the parent is incapacitated by age from managing his 
farm, he retires to a small cottage, generally on the property, 
and receives from the son in possession contributions towards 
his support both in money and kind. The other children receive 
a sum of money calculated according to the size of the property 



- THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 375 

and the number of children, but which, in any case, falls far 
short of the sum which they would receive if the property were 
equally divided, or even were the law of pflicht-theil acted on. 
They have, however, their home there until they establish them- 
selves independently or take service on another property." 
Mr. Phipps, who gives this account of the Wurtemburg land 
system, adds that political economists of that country are now 
" of opinion that small proprietors who complete their means of 
livelihood by industrial pursuits are the most desirable class to 
encourage, whereas formerly agriculture on a large scale was 
considered the most profitable." 

In Bavaria, where the land is very much subdivided, Mr. 
Fenton attests the general prevalence of a custom very similar 
to that which characterises the larger peasant farms in Wurtem- 
burg. Except in the Bavarian Palatinate, where the Code 
Napoleon is in force, the descent and inheritance of land are 
governed throughout Bavaria by the principles, though not 
everywhere by the express provisions, of the common law. 
" A proprietor is bound to bequeath, at his death, a certain 
defined portion of his property, to be divided in equal shares 
among all his legitimate children. That portion must not be 
less than one-half, if the number of children be five or more 
than five ; and not less than one- third, if there be four, or less 
than four, children." Where the property consists of land, and 
especially if it be a peasant property, the eldest son may, and 
usually does, retain the whole, paying the rest a pecuniary in- 
demnity for their shares, if the father has not already installed him 
in possession, as sometimes happens, during his own lifetime. 
"Amongst that class the almost invariable custom is for the tes- 
tator to leave the whole of the real property — farmhouse, farm 
buildings, and land — in the possession of one member of the 
family, commonly the widow or the eldest son, and that person 
then becomes responsible to the children for the payment to 
them of a sum of money corresponding to the value (as ascer- 
tained by official appraisement) of their share of the property, the 
children ? s share being generally fixed at one-half of the whole, 
real as well as personal. It is further a universally understood 



376 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

condition of an arrangement of the nature above described, 
that the person who remains in possession of the property and 
becomes its owner, is bound during a certain number of years 
(after the payment of their shares to all the children) to provide 
any one or all of them with board and lodging at the homestead, 
in the event of their falling into distress from sickness, want of 
employment, etc." In short, the peasant proprietors of Bavaria, 
who are admitted to be a thriving class, appear to keep up their 
family estates with as much tenacity as our own landed gentry, 
but with a jealousy for the rights of younger children which re- 
minds us of the Irish peasant farmers. In the Austrian Empire, 
on the contrary, the devolution of all property, real and personal, 
is regulated by the Civil Code, by which " no preference is 
accorded to eldest sons," nor have sons any advantage over 
daughters; but "an exception exists in the case of family en- 
tails (majorats)" Of course these entails are mainly created on 
large properties. Whatever be the instrument which constitutes 
such an entail, Mr. Lytton remarks that it has no legal validity 
without the special consent of the legislative power. 

It is almost superfluous to state that Switzerland is a land 
of small proprietors, the law of equal division being heartily 
supported by custom. According to Mr. Mackenzie's report 
" the quantity of land usually held by each varies from six to 
twelve acres, small lots held together, and the larger intersected 
by other properties," yet, instead of being pauperised by sub- 
division, the Swiss are proverbial for successful enterprise in 
trade both at home and abroad. In Belgium morcellement has 
notoriously been carried, under the Code Napoleon, to a greater 
extreme than in France itself ; so that Mr. Wyndham estimates 
the average size of estates, deducting woodlands and wastes, 
at seven acres ; and Mr. Grattan cites official statistics which 
show that four-fifths did not exceed twelve acres. *' The dis- 
persion of land is increased by the system which generally 
prevails at public sales of dividing real estate into small parcels 
or lots " ; otherwise the properties of small families, sold for 
the purpose of effecting a more convenient distribution among 
children, would be constantly passing into the hands of rich 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 377 

families. In Holland, as we learn from Mr. Locock's report, 
1 ■ the law of succession requires the division in equal portions, 
amongst the children or next of kin, of a major part of every 
inheritance without regard to its nature or origin, and this is 
naturally calculated to favour to a great extent the division of 
landed property. But on the other hand there exists a very 
prevalent desire with individuals to avoid unnecessarily splitting 
up the paternal estates. It is a common thing for a farmer, 
whether proprietor or tenant, to have accumulated before his 
death sufficient movable property, frequently in the funds, to 
enable him to assign a portion therefrom to one or another of 
his children." The policy of the law, however, is rather against 
family arrangements whereby the eldest son may retain all the 
land and the younger children may be compensated in money, 
since it imposes an increased tax on successions thus modified 
by agreement. In the Hanse Towns, as well as in Schleswig- 
Holstein, primogeniture is more countenanced by law ; but even 
where, as in Bremen, the real estate goes to the eldest son on 
intestacy, the " co-heirs," or younger children, are entitled to be 
portioned out of it. 

In Italy, says Mr. Bonham, "the laws in force tend in every 
way to favour the dispersion of land," and equal division, with- 
out distinction of sex, is the rule of inheritance on intestacy ; 
but a landowner, having children, may leave one-half of his 
property by will ; the other half — legitima poi-tio — " cannot be 
burdened with any conditions by the testator." In Greece and 
Portugal the law of intestacy and the restrictions on testamentary 
disposition are, in all essential respects, the same as in Italy, 
producing in both countries a large and increasing subdivision 
of landed property. Mr. Finlay, speaking of the stationary 
condition of Greek agriculture, observes : "It is the almost 
universal rule that each small proprietor possesses a zevgari" 
(or plot requiring two pair of oxen to plough it), •• and that 
each cultivator of national land occupies no more." Mr. Merlin, 
in his report on Greece, mentions the curious fact that "it is 
extremely rare for the sons to marry till their sisters are pro- 
vided for ; and this feeling pervades all classes." In Russia, 



378 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

where the land system has been complicated by political and 
social distinctions between classes, by serfdom, and by the 
communal organisation, Mr. Michell reports that local usage 
regulates the descent of peasant properties. The law of intes- 
tacy for the rest of the community is based on equal division, 
giving males a preference over females. " There is no general 
law of primogeniture, although in a few great families estates 
have been entailed under a special law passed in the reign of 
the Emperor Nicholas. In 17 13 Peter the Great attempted to 
introduce a general inheritance in fee of the eldest son ; but 
this was so much opposed to the spirit of the Russian land- 
owners, that one of the first acts of Peter II was to cancel the 
ukase of 17 13." 

Under the land laws of most states in the American Union, 
an owner in fee-simple has nearly the same power of disposition 
as he would possess in this country, but the rule of equal 
division prevails in case of intestacy. The results of this system 
and the reason why they differ so widely from those produced 
by our own are succinctly described in the following passages of 
Mr. Ford's report : 

The system of land occupation in the United States of America may be 
generally described as by small proprietors. The proprietary class throughout 
the country is, moreover, rapidly on the increase, whilst that of the tenancy is 
diminishing, and is principally supplied by immigration. The theory and 
practice of the country is for every man to own land as soon as possible. The 
term of landlord is an obnoxious one. The American people are very averse 
to being tenants, and are more anxious to be masters of the soil, and are 
content to own, if nothing else, a small homestead, a mechanic's home, a 
comfortable dwelling-house in compact towns, with a lot of land of from 
50 feet by 100 feet about it. In the sparsely peopled portions of the country 
a tenancy for a term of years may be said to exist only in exceptional cases. 
Land is so cheap there that every provident man may own land in fee. The 
possession of land of itself does not bestow on a man, as it does in Europe, a 
title to consideration ; indeed, its possession in large quantities frequently 
reacts prejudicially to his interests, as attaching to him a taint of aristocracy 
which is distasteful to the masses of the American people. 

The landowner in the United States has entire freedom to devise his 
property at will. He can leave it to one or more of his children or he may 
leave it to a perfect stranger. In the event of his dying intestate, his real 
estate is equally divided amongst his children without distinction as to sex, 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 379 

subject, however, to a right of dower to his widow, should there be one. If 
there are no children or lineal descendants, the property goes to other relatives 
of the deceased. If the intestate leaves no kindred, his estate escheats to the 
state in which it is situated. The laws of the different states of the Union 
regulating the descent and division of landed property on death of owner 
harmonise to a great extent with each other. 

It may be asserted that the system of land-tenure by small proprietors is 
regarded in this country with great favour, and that the prevailing public 
opinion is that the possession of land should be within the reach of the most 
modest means. A proprietor of land, however small, acquires a stake in the 
country, and assumes responsibilities which guarantee his discharging faithfully 
his duties as a citizen. Whilst practically any one man may acquire as much 
land as he can pay for, yet the whole tendency and effect of the laws of this 
country are conducive to dispersion and multitudinous ownership of land. The 
several states, and the government of the United States grant their lands in 
limited quantities ; and under the laws of descent lands descend to the children, 
irrespective of sex, in equal shares ; and the laws of partition provide for a 
division of the lands into as many parts as there are interests, where it can be 
done without prejudice. In many European countries the sale and transfer of 
land are so hampered by legal complications, and entail such heavy expenses, 
as frequently to discourage such operations. In the United States, on the 
contrary, the sale and transfer of land are conducted with about the same ease 
as would be the sale of a watch. Very large quantities of land are seldom held 
in this country, undivided, by one family for more than one or two generations. 
It is worthy of remark that in this country the same reluctance is not felt, as 
in Europe, to parting with family lands. 

The conclusion to be drawn from this rapid survey of foreign 
laws and customs regulating the devolution and settlement of 
land may be expressed in a very few words. No other nation 
has adopted in its entirety the English right of primogeniture — 
a right which could only have grown up in a thoroughly feudal- 
ised society, and could only have been perpetuated in a country 
where the feudal structure of society has never undergone any 
violent disturbance. In those states which have remodelled their 
jurisprudence on the principles of the Code Napoleon, the eldest 
son is effectually debarred from engrossing the whole landed 
property of the family. In other states which have developed 
their law of succession independently, parents are allowed to 
"make eldest sons," under greater or less restrictions. In no 
considerable state but our own does the law itself, in default 
of a will or settlement, constitute the eldest son the sole heir to 



380 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

all the realty, and in no other is the exclusive preference of the 
first-born, thus consecrated by law, carried to such extreme 
lengths in family government. It remains to consider whether 
this unique institution, viewed as a whole, deserves to be still 
upheld by English statesmen, either by virtue of its intrinsic 
merits, or by reason of its having become incorporated into our 
national character ; and, if not, in what manner it may be proper 
to modify it by legislative enactment. 

IV 

In approaching this part of the subject we must resolutely 
put aside two lines of reasoning which have done much to 
obscure it. The first of these is that which starts from the 
idea that younger sons have certain natural rights, of which 
they are deprived by the law and custom of primogeniture. 
Now, it is impossible to form any definite conception of rights 
in this sense, except as arising from the personal exertions of 
those who claim them ; or, at least, from expectations fostered 
by the law, or the parent, as the case may be. If the Code 
Napoleon had been introduced into England, and if the existing 
rule of descent by primogeniture were afterwards substituted 
for it, the generation of younger sons affected by the change 
would have good cause for complaint, unless their interests 
were expressly reserved. Again, if a father had led his children 
to count upon an equal division of his property, and were then 
to accumulate all upon the eldest son, a palpable wrong would 
be done to all the rest. But the supposed grievance of existing 
younger sons who receive the small fortunes to which they were 
born and have always looked forward will . not bear a moment's 
investigation. It is in no respect more real than the grievance 
of those who are born to no fortune at all and look wistfully 
at the inherited wealth of the richer classes. Indeed, the 
cadets of territorial families who are disposed to regard them- 
selves as the victims of injustice may well reflect that, but for 
the institution of primogeniture, those families might perhaps 
have little or no. territory in their possession, but might long 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 381 

since have been merged in the mass of the community. Ex- 
cept where the law steps in, on intestacy, to defeat the known 
intentions of a father, or a father disappoints the hopes en- 
couraged by himself to aggrandise an eldest son, it can hardly 
be said that primogeniture involves injustice to younger children. 
Whatever injustice it may involve is sustained by society at 
large, and though society consists of individual members, those 
of its members who ultimately suffer most by the operation of 
primogeniture are certainly not to be found in families which 
owe their existence to it. 

Still more irrelevant are the attacks which have recently been 
made on primogeniture from a communistic point of view. 
Communistic theories of property, if valid at all, are valid not 
against any particular rule of succession, but against individual 
proprietorship as such or against the ample and peculiar rights 
of English landlords — rights of which no proprietary class is 
more tenacious than new purchasers. No doubt it is a perfectly 
intelligible proposition that all the land in the kingdom ought to 
be " nationalised " and placed under public management, because 
individual owners cannot be trusted with full dominion over that 
part of the earth's surface by which and upon which all natives 
of England must live unless they choose to emigrate. It is 
evident that, apart from all other objections, this doctrine is the 
very negation of the belief in peasant-proprietorship and " the 
magic of property," being, in fact, an essentially urban senti- 
ment and inevitably destructive to all independence of rural life. 
Nor can it be said that our experience of corporate administra- 
tion, in the case of lands held by collegiate, ecclesiastical, and 
municipal bodies, as well as by trustees of charities, is such as 
to recommend the substitution of public for private ownership 
on a much grander scale. At the same time it is incontestable 
that land has actually been treated by all governments, not 
excluding our own, as more within State control, for many 
purposes, than other kinds of property ; and it is possible to 
conceive circumstances under which it might be expedient to 
extend State control much further over the soil of these islands. 
But what has all this to do with the right of primogeniture, 



382 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and what consistency is there in a programme which couples 
the abolition of that right and the adoption of free trade in 
land with provisions designed to withdraw from the market 
and consolidate into large municipal domains more and more 
of the properties which are already supposed to be too few? 
This is not the place to discuss the moral or economical 
aspects of these provisions ; suffice it to point out that, except 
so far as they are aimed at overgrown private estates, they have 
nothing in common with the policy of reforming the law and 
custom of primogeniture. This policy assumes the mainte- 
nance of private property, and is directed to its more equitable 
distribution among individuals, without contemplating a return 
to a communal system of ownership, which, if accepted, would 
supersede all laws of inheritance and powers of disposition. 
It is the more necessary to insist on this point, because the 
cause of primogeniture has been strengthened, and the efforts 
of its opponents weakened, by the unfounded impression that 
it cannot be touched without reconstructing our whole law of 
property, whereas no more is demanded or required than an 
amendment of one single chapter. 

The most familiar, as well as the strongest, arguments in 
favour of primogeniture as it exists in England are derived 
from considerations which must be called, in the largest sense, 
political. It was as a powerful bulwark of our landed aristoc- 
racy that Burke defended it in his " Appeal from the New to 
the Old Whigs," emphatically declaring that "without question 
it has a tendency (I think a most happy tendency) to preserve 
a character of consequence, weight, and prevalent influence over 
others, in the whole body of the landed interest." The Real 
Property Commissioners appointed in 1828 fully endorsed this 
opinion in their first report, which contains a laudation of 
the settlements then in use as the' best means of "preserving 
families," and as investing the ostensible lord of the soil "with 
exactly the dominion and power of disposition over it required for 
the public good." The English law of intestacy is regarded by 
the commissioners with equal approbation, since it " appears far 
better adapted to the constitution and habits of this kingdom 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 383 

than the opposite law of equal partibility, which, in a few gener- 
ations, would break down the aristocracy of the country, and, by 
the endless subdivision of the soil, must ultimately be unfavour- 
able to agriculture and injurious to the best interests of the 
State." Very similar opinions are expressed by Mr. McCul- 
loch, in combating the well-known dictum of Adam Smith, 
that (t nothing can be more contrary to the real interest of a 
numerous family than a right which, in order to enrich one, 
beggars all the rest of the family." Mr. McCulloch', indeed, 
though he condemns the old indestructible Scotch entails, since 
abolished by law, treats it as a characteristic merit of English 
primogeniture that it sustains a high standard of luxury among 
country gentlemen of which the example is not lost upon the 
mercantile classes. 

If we analyse this plea for primogeniture somewhat more 
closely, it will be found to resolve itself into several distinct 
lines of reasoning. In the first place, it is alleged, or rather 
suggested, that without primogeniture it would be impossible 
to maintain an hereditary peerage. The sufficient reply to any 
such allegation is that an hereditary peerage may be kept up, 
and is kept up in some Continental states, either by means of 
majorats specially created, or by making certain estates "run" 
with the titles derived from them, without any general law or 
custom of primogeniture. Moreover, unless primogeniture be 
defensible on other grounds, as beneficial to the whole com- 
munity, it would surely be monstrous that it should be imposed 
on the families of some hundred thousand freeholders — not to 
speak of those who may be rendered landless by its indirect 
operation — for the sake of the few hundred families composing 
the hereditary nobility. In fact, Burke himself, with all his 
aristocratic bias, was careful not to rest the case on so narrow a 
ground ; and few admirers of primogeniture would now venture 
to advocate it in the interest of the Upper House as distinct 
from that of the nation at large. 

But, secondly, it is urged, and not without great force, that 
primogeniture is actually productive of greater benefits, politi- 
cal and social, to English society as a whole than could be 



384 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

expected from a system of more equal partibility. It is bet- 
ter, we are told, for rural England at least, to be paternally 
governed by a comparatively limited hierarchy of eldest sons, 
whose successors are usually designated long beforehand, than 
for estates to become subject to division once in each genera- 
tion, with the risk of passing into the hands of new purchasers 
having no ancestral connection with land. It is contended 
that an heir born to a great position and trained from his 
earliest years to make himself worthy of it acquires habits, and 
is fortified by motives, which are powerful securities for his 
future virtue and capacity. This ideal landowner, having been 
thoroughly instructed in all the manifold duties of property 
during his father's lifetime, and conscious that a large body of 
tenants and dependants look to him for guidance and example, 
enters upon the management of his estate in a spirit altogether 
superior to commercial self-interest, prepared to do for it what 
no mere land-speculator would think of doing, and no small 
proprietor could afford to do. If he is a religious man, he 
builds churches in neglected hamlets ; if he is an agriculturist, 
he sinks more in drainage and farm buildings than he will ever 
live to receive back in rent ; if he is a social reformer, he erects 
model cottages, carries out sanitary improvements, patronises 
schools, or devotes himself to bringing forward the most prom- 
ising youths in the parishes of which he is lord. In all 
these enterprises, as well as in the unpaid services which he 
renders on the magisterial bench, on local boards, and in the 
varied spheres of influence open to resident landlords, he is 
actuated by no hope of pecuniary reward or even of personal 
gratification, but rather by that peculiar sense of honour, com- 
pounded of public spirit and family pride, which has played so 
large a part in the history of England. His character, thus 
developed, exhibits a marked individuality, but it is by no 
means a one-sided individuality. With education enough to 
understand the economical and legal questions which he is 
daily called upon to settle in practice, with leisure enough to 
follow the course of affairs both at home and abroad, with 
refinement enough to appreciate art and literature, with energy 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 385 

enough to enjoy a life of constant activity in which • ■ county 
business " is relieved by field sports and a laborious summer 
holiday, with independence enough to smile at official favours 
or displeasure, the model English country gentleman repre- 
sents a species which has never been developed in any other 
country, and the absence of which goes far to account for the 
failure of local self-government in France. Is it, we are asked, 
a legitimate object of State policy to promote the gradual extinc- 
tion of this class, and meanwhile to disorganise the whole 
structure of family life within it, for the sake of any doubtful 
advantage that may be gained by a wider distribution of pro- 
prietary rights ? 

Such a landlord as has been described may be taken as the 
embodiment of the English landed aristocracy, as it should be, 
from the political and social point of view. Possibly an equally 
attractive and not less faithful picture might be drawn of a 
landed democracy, as it should be, illustrated by Swiss and 
American experience. We have not, however, to deal with 
ideals, but with realities ; not with exceptions, however numer- 
ous, but with general tendencies. Let it be granted, once more, 
that a high standard of political and social responsibility is 
recognised by a very large number of English country gentle- 
men — the special products, ex hypothesi, of primogeniture ; 
and, further, that an institution so bound up with much that is 
admirable should not be lightly disturbed. Still, we are bound 
to inquire whether these results have not been purchased too 
dear ; whether the continued maintenance of primogeniture in 
its integrity involves no countervailing evils, and whether a 
nearer approximation to ancient usage and foreign codes of land- 
tenure might not conduce to greater stability and greater unity 
in our body politic. 

It is certainly impossible to ignore the grave political danger 
involved in the simple fact that nearly all the soil of Great 
Britain, the value of which is so incalculable, and progressively 
advancing, should belong to a section of the population rela- 
tively small and progressively dwindling. More than twenty 
years ago Mr. Porter, a very high authority on economical 



386 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

statistics, arrived at the conclusion that ''with scarcely any 
exception, the revenue drawn in the form of rent has been at 
least doubled in every part of Great Britain since 1790." In 
the period which has since elapsed the same causes have con- 
tinued to operate with still greater activity. It was stated in a 
report issued by Mr. Goschen, as president of the Poor- Law 
Board, that the annual value of lands, houses, railways, and other 
property in the United Kingdom assessed to the income tax, 
under Schedule A, rose from ^53,495,375 to ^143,872,588 
between 18 14 and 1868 ; and this must be exclusive of the 
immense sums (estimated by Mr. A. Arnold at ^100,000,000) 
received by the landed interest from railway companies over and 
above the market price of the land thus sold. From the last 
report of the Inland Revenue Office it appears that the assess- 
ment of the United Kingdom, under Schedule A, amounted to 
more than ,£150,000,000, and that of England and Wales alone 
to £122,599,255, in the year 1 873-1 874, and the commission- 
ers give reasons for believing the real advance in the value of 
landed property to have been much greater. But it is the less 
needful to enter minutely into any such calculations, inasmuch as 
it is not disputed that for many years past the rental of England 
has been constantly on the increase ; while the fact that persons 
are willing to invest in land at a low present rate of interest is 
the best proof either that a further increase in its annual value is 
expected, or that its annual value is no measure of its real worth 
to a purchaser. In short, the man who buys land buys not only 
what may pay him so much per cent, but what may give him 
social position, and power over his tenants and neighbours. It is 
precisely this which renders the undue concentration of landed 
property so detrimental to public interest in quiet times and so 
perilous to its possessors in times of revolution. We have seen 
that, whether the aggregate number of English landowners be 
stated at more than 900,000, or less than 50,000, a few hundreds 
of them possess more land than all the rest together, having 
dominion, moreover, over the greater part of London itself, and 
many of our provincial capitals. Had the legal rights actually 
possessed by such proprietors as the Marquis of Westminster 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 387 

been strained to the utmost, instead of being exercised for the 
most part with forbearance and discretion, legislative interference 
would assuredly have been needed to avert a revolutionary solu- 
tion of the English land question. Very serious issues, too, have 
already arisen in England upon which the interests of rural land- 
owners have been ostensibly in antagonism with those of the 
commercial and industrial classes. Still more serious risks of 
collision between town and country are foreshadowed by recent 
events in France, where the millions of peasant proprietors con- 
stitute the one great barrier against communism. Were it possible 
to imagine a similar crisis occurring in England, it is to be feared 
that no similar barrier could be presented by the handful of great 
proprietors, however powerful their existing influence, who have 
profited so enormously, and with so little effort of their own, by 
the growing prosperity of the country during the present century. 
In the next place we cannot and must not ignore the less 
favourable aspect of primogeniture, in its relation to public life 
and national energy. Mr. W. L. Newman, in a remarkable essay 
on the "English Land Laws," speaks of their tendency "to 
establish in the centre of each family a magnificently fed and 
coloured drone, the incarnation of wealth and social dignity, 
the visible end of human endeavour, a sort of great final cause, 
immanent in every family." Without adopting this somewhat 
invidious conception of the system, we may well ask ourselves 
whether it is, on the whole, for the public good to encourage the 
development of a class wholly dependent on birth, and independ- 
ent of merit, for the command of all that makes life desirable. 
Berkeley asks, " What right hath an eldest son to the worst 
education ? " and Bacon, after describing a new expedient for 
defeating the recent legislation against entails, touches in a preg- 
nant sentence the very bottom of this question : " Therefore it is 
worthy of good consideration whether it be better for the subject 
and sovereign to have lands secured to men's names and blood 
by perpetuities, with all the inconveniences above-mentioned, or 
to be free, with hazard of undoing his house by unthrifty pos- 
terity." No doubt primogeniture creates a "leisure class," but is 
this an unmixed benefit ? " Leisure " may be essential to aesthetic 



388 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and intellectual culture, but it is the leisure earned by honourable 
exertion or guaranteed by a discriminating use of endowments, 
not the leisure inherited as a right attaching to private property. 
It would be difficult, indeed, to show that our peerage and landed 
aristocracy, with all their overwhelming advantages, have contrib- 
uted one-half so much to science, literature, or art as the rest of 
the community who have been thrown upon their own labour for 
the means of making their bread. Even in politics, where eldest 
sons long enjoyed a precedence that might easily have proved 
exclusive, younger sons and men of no family at all have more 
than equalled them in the attainment of great eminence ; and it is 
no absurd opinion that England would have produced a larger 
number of really illustrious men, if she had abandoned primo- 
geniture long ago. Were the inheritance of a great name and 
fortune a security for public virtue, we should expect to find the 
standard highest in the most exalted order of our nobility ; 
whereas it is too notorious to need specific demonstration that an 
exceptional indifference to such motives has of late been mani- 
fested by persons of ducal rank. No doubt these are exceptions, 
but they are by no means rare exceptions. They are exceptions, 
moreover, of which primogeniture must bear the whole discredit, 
for they are the direct result of settling princely territories upon 
unborn heirs, of whose capacity and character there is not the 
smallest presumption. On the other hand, the whole credit of 
instances, happily more numerous, in which a noble estate is 
nobly administered, cannot fairly be assigned to primogeniture. 
Before we can be assured that society is a clear gainer by the 
existence of a great landowner, combining every perfection of his 
type, we must be satisfied that he does more good than all the 
yeomen whom he displaces, and more than he would have done 
himself if compelled to win his own position in the world, perhaps 
struggling, like Warren Hastings, for the redemption of a lost 
patrimony. 

Indeed, the merits so freely claimed for primogeniture from 
this point of view, only appear irresistible so long as we leave out 
of sight those which may be claimed for the alternative. When, 
for instance, it is urged that no incentive to honourable ambition 



TliE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 389 

is so potent as the prospect of founding a family, it is forgotten 
that, whatever be the force of this incentive, it is exhausted by 
one individual to the detriment of his descendants. The first 
bearer of a title may have rendered important services to the 
State in the attempt to achieve success ; but no sooner is success 
achieved than an indefinite series of male successors is placed 
above the operation of the very motives which inspired and 
ennobled the exertions of their ancestor. Again, when it is con- 
tended that primogeniture keeps up the local settlement of fam- 
ilies, which is assumed to be an unmixed benefit, it is entirely 
forgotten that while it roots the elder branch for the time being 
in the soil, it uproots all the others. The eldest male in each 
generation is selected to occupy the family mansion and estates, 
but the other members of the family are by the same act divorced 
from the place of their birth, and scattered abroad to seek their 
living in other parts of England, in the metropolis, or in the 
colonies. This dispersion of families, which does not equally 
prevail in any other class, is, in fact, often represented as one 
of the blessings incident to primogeniture. It is by no means 
uncommon to. hear eloquent discourses on the happiness of 
younger sons in having to start in life without a competence, 
and especially without a competence in land, by persons to whom 
it never occurs that, if the heritage of poverty be so enviable, it 
would not be difficult to devise means whereby it might be shared 
by eldest sons also. 

Equally delusive is the notion that primogeniture operates as a 
democratic solvent upon the landed gentry, inasmuch as younger 
sons, who might otherwise help to form an exclusive aristocracy, 
are thus constantly thrust down into the plebeian class. The 
fusion of the upper and middle classes in England, so far as it 
exists at all, is not the effect of primogeniture, but of national 
temperament. In Germany, where titles descend to younger sons, 
the utmost insolence of family pride is manifested by the poorest 
scions of nobility ; in America, where popular opinion almost en- 
forces the equal division of property, social equality is complete, 
and younger sons are more industrious than in England. In 
short, men's habits and bearing are governed rather by early 



390 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS % 

training than by future prospects ; and a youth brought up in one 
of our ducal palaces, though destined to be cut off with a beggarly 
fortune, is more likely to be an aristocrat in character than if 
brought up in a frugal home with great expectations. 

But these are not the only, or the main, fallacies which beset 
the social argument in favour of primogeniture. That argument 
rests upon the further assumption that entails and settlements are, 
at least, effectual to give us a resident proprietary capable of dis- 
charging the first duty of property, by developing to the utmost 
the productive energies of the soil. This assumption will scarcely 
bear examination by the light of every-day experience. Instead 
of primogeniture creating a wealthy resident proprietary, it is 
certain that it produces, and almost demonstrable that it must 
produce, the very opposite effect. Out of three English propri- 
etors owning above 100,000 acres each, two have properties 
scattered, respectively, over eleven counties. Most of our great 
aristocratic houses possess more than one family place. It is 
impossible for the head of the family to reside continuously at 
each ; during the whole London season he is nominally in atten- 
dance on the House of Lords, and, unless he is exceptionally 
conscientious, he easily satisfies himself with a flying visit once 
a year to his less favoured estates. In short, absenteeism is the 
inevitable consequence of a system which concentrates landed 
property in few hands, and, where absenteeism exists, the raison 
d'etre of primogeniture is materially weakened. But this is not all. 
Entails and settlements provide an ample security against landed 
property being divided according to the dictates of natural affec- 
tion, but they provide no adequate security against its remaining 
practically without a responsible owner during a whole lifetime, 
or even against its ultimately passing into the hands of strangers. 
If a duke ruins himself by gambling, and is declared bankrupt, 
his domains may be managed for the sole benefit of his assignees 
during half a century, unless he can obtain the concurrence of 
his eldest son to sell them outright. In this case, the whole 
inheritance of a family may be converted into money at a stroke 
by collusion between two of its members, for the exclusive profit 
of themselves or their creditors, without the semblance of consent 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 391 

on the part of the younger children and junior branches, who are 
supposed to have a moral, if not a legal, interest in the land thus 
alienated. It is true that where such things happen — and such 
things do happen — the farmers and cottagers on the estate usu- 
ally change masters for the better, and this fact points to what 
is the inherent weakness of primogeniture, economically con- 
sidered. It vests the control of property, wherever it prevails, not 
in a series of hereditary landowners, but in a series of heredi- 
tary life-tenants, or "limited owners" as they are now called, 
without the full rights and sense of proprietorship, sometimes 
heavily embarrassed, and almost always with a standard of unpro- 
ductive expenditure more than commensurate with their means. 
Let it be granted that somewhat undue stress has been laid on 
this particular topic by some opponents of primogeniture, who 
measure its economical defects by the whole difference between 
the actual produce of England, and that which might be realised 
if the entire area of the country, including the waste lands, were 
brought into the very highest state of cultivation. Let it be 
granted also that ancestral connection may count for something 
against a superior command of capital available for agricultural 
improvements, that rents are seldom excessive on settled estates, 
and that, until the poor in country districts can be raised to 
greater independence, they might often suffer by the substitu- 
tion of strictly commercial relations for their present semi-feudal 
connection with the family on whose property they are settled. 
Still, we may confidently appeal to persons conversant with the 
sale of land to confirm the inference deducible from the laws of 
political economy, namely, that, in the majority of instances, when 
land comes into the market, it passes from worse into better 
hands, and that, consequently, so far as primogeniture artificially 
obstructs free trade in land and saves the estates of spend- 
thrifts from partition, it works a substantial injury to society. The 
new purchaser may be comparatively ignorant of country life, 
but he is not encumbered by rent-charges of indefinite duration, 
by mortgages contracted to pay off his father's debts, by dynastic 
traditions of estate-management, by the silly family pride which 
must needs emulate the state of some richer predecessor, by the 



392 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

passion for political dictation to which the refusal of leases is so 
frequently due, or by the supposed necessity of satisfying the sup- 
posed expectations of the neighbourhood. Having no liabilities 
of a past generation to discharge, he can make a liberal provision 
for younger children out of his rental, by way of life insurance or 
otherwise ; and if this should not suffice with such addition as 
he may be able to make from invested funds, there is nothing 
to prevent his leaving them portions of the estate or directing 
portions to be sold for their benefit. Meanwhile, he is master of 
his own property and free to develop its resources without 
feeling that he is either compromising or unjustly enriching an 
eldest son. 

This brings us back to what may be called the domestic aspect 
of primogeniture ; that is, to its influence upon the happiness 
and welfare of the households immediately affected by it. Apart 
from the question whether upon other grounds it is expedient, 
in the interest of the State, to perpetuate a landed aristocracy, 
we have to consider the question whether the English institution 
of primogeniture conduces to family peace and virtuous conduct 
within that aristocracy. This is a question which has been very 
fully discussed by Mr. Locke King and Mr. Neate, the latter of 
whom specially insists on the humiliating and unbecoming posi- 
tion in which the father as life-tenant is placed towards the eldest 
son, as tenant-in-tail in remainder. "It is a hard thing," he 
says, "for a father to have to confess and excuse his extravagance 
to a son, or to justify his desire for a second wife. It is a worse 
thing for a son to judge of his father's excuses, or to decide vir- 
tually, as head of the family, whether it is right that his father 
should be allowed to marry again." Yet this is but one of the 
forms in which our system of entails operates to sow discord and 
undutiful feeling in families. Long before the heir to a great 
estate emerges from boyhood, he is made aware that his fortune 
does not depend on his father's will or his own deserts. He soon 
learns to consider the estate as his, subject only to his father's 
life-interest, and expects to receive an allowance making him to 
live in idleness, so that a double burden is laid upon the land 
for the support of two establishments yielding no agricultural 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 393 

return. As the father grows older, and the son's expectation of 
succeeding becomes nearer and nearer, painful jealousies are very 
apt to spring up between them, till at last, perhaps, not a lease 
can be granted or a fall of timber authorised, lest it may preju- 
dice or be represented as prejudicing the reversion. Of course, 
there are many examples of families owning settled estates, where 
the father and eldest son work together in harmony, both looking 
upon themselves as trustees not only for the rest of the family, 
but for all placed under their control. But it is self-evident that 
an indefeasible right of succession vested in the eldest son must 
tend to weaken parental authority and to facilitate borrowing 
money upon the security of reversionary interests. 

We have already seen that it is fallacious to speak generally 
of primogeniture as inflicting injustice upon younger children. 
It is, however, equally fallacious to describe it as securing 
younger children, regarded individually, a full equivalent for an 
equal share of the family heritage upon the father's death. In 
what does this imaginary equivalent consist ? Certainly not in any- 
thing capable of being reduced to a definite conception, unless 
it be the enjoyment of a rank determined by that of their elder 
brother, and of a claim on his influence for their advancement in 
life, as well as the maintenance at his expense of a country seat 
where they are welcome and honoured guests. Of these privileges 
the two last depend entirely on their remaining on good terms 
with the head of the family, whose interest naturally centres in 
his own children rather than in his father's children, and whose 
residence, however freely thrown open to them, cannot after all 
be treated as their home. As for the first privilege it may well be 
doubted whether rank or status out of proportion to a man's pecu- 
niary means be not an encumbrance rather than a boon. To have 
acquired, under a parent's roof, habits, tastes, and ideas of style 
which cannot be gratified in maturer years without running into 
debt has been the ruin of many a promising career. To this 
cause, more than any other, is traceable the self-imposed celibacy 
too prevalent among younger sons of good family in the me- 
tropolis, and inevitably prejudicial not to morality only, but to 
steadiness and earnestness in practical work. By this cause more 



394 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

than any other was fostered the shameful jobbery of former days, 
when the church, the army, and the civil service were refuges 
for the privileged destitute, and junior members of the aristocracy 
were said to rely on the budget for their ways and means. Now 
that patronage has been most properly restricted, that capital and 
mercantile connection is almost essential for success in business, 
and that even the bar is becoming more and more dependent on 
the lower branch of the legal profession, it is very doubtful 
whether younger sons of county families stand a fair chance in 
the race of life against young men of the middle class with equal 
fortunes, more active backing, less sensitive feelings, and a more 
utilitarian education. If they have no right to complain of a lot 
which appears very enviable to most of their countrymen, and 
which only needs exceptional energy to make it so, yet they owe 
no gratitude to a system which inverts the natural order of human 
life, accustoming them to ease and luxury in youth, but offering 
them no adequate provision either for an early settlement or for 
an early retirement. 

From every point of view, then, we are led to an adverse 
judgment on the extreme development of primogeniture estab- 
lished in England by the joint operation of law and custom. It 
must be condemned, politically, as aggravating the perilous dual- 
ism of town and country ; as affording the very minimum of 
constitutional stability to be derived from the conservative instincts 
of proprietorship ; and as giving a very limited body of landlords 
a preponderance in the State, none the less unreasonable and 
obnoxious because it is defended on the untenable ground that it 
is bound up with the existence of the Upper House. It must be 
condemned, socially, because it helps to stereotype the caste-like 
organisation of English classes " in horizontal layers," setting up 
in thousands of country parishes a territorial autocracy, which, 
however benevolently exercised, keeps the farming and labouring 
population in an abnormal state of dependence on a single land- 
owner, while the rural districts have gradually been deserted by 
the lesser gentry who helped to bridge over the chasm between 
rich and poor in ancient times. It must be condemned, econom- 
ically, because it cramps the free play of economical laws in 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 395 

dealings with land, multiplies the difficulties and cost of transfer, 
and discourages a far-sighted application of capital to agriculture, 
either by the landlord, who is usually a mere life-owner, or by 
the tenant, who seldom holds a lease. It must be condemned, 
morally, because it holds out to almost every eldest son in what 
must still be regarded as the governing class the assurance of 
wealth and power, whether he be worthy of it or not, and subject 
to no condition but that of surviving his father. Lastly, it must 
be condemned, in the interest of family government, because it 
fatally weakens the authority of parents over eldest sons, and 
introduces a degree of inequality into the relations of children 
brought up .together which often mars the cordiality of their 
intercourse in after life. 



These considerations are amply sufficient to prove the expedi- 
ency — not to say the necessity ^- of reforming the institution of 
primogeniture, so far as it depends on law. Upon one principle 
to be embraced in any such reform, public opinion has long pro- 
nounced itself so decisively that it may be taken as already con- 
ceded. This principle is the assimilation of real to personal 
property, in respect of distribution on intestacy. Even the stout- 
est adherents of primogeniture, as a custom, are beginning to 
allow that, in default of a will or settlement, the law should 
incline to equality, especially as intestacies are more likely to 
occur in poor than in wealthy families. To what extent a change 
in the law of succession on intestacy would affect the practice of 
testators and settlors is a matter of mere speculation, on which 
it would be rash to speak confidently. Many are of opinion that 
no legal presumption in favour of equal partition would avail in the 
least to counteract the rooted propensity of Englishmen, once 
possessed of land, to found and keep up a family, but that, on 
the contrary, people who are now content to die intestate would 
forthwith make wills disinheriting all their children but one. 
This opinion appears to derive some little weight from the history 
of landed property in Kent, where a great many estates have 
been disgavelled, and where it is said that wills are not more 



396 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

favourable to younger sons than in the rest of the island. Others 
believe that a deliberate reversal of the policy hitherto sanctioned 
by the legislature would exert a powerful influence on popular 
sentiment, and, coupled with the direct operation of the new law, 
would leave a very sensible impression on the rural economy of 
England within two or three generations. In support of this 
belief, it may be urged that, in a vast number of cases, the form 
of settlements and wills is practically dictated by the solicitors 
who frame them, and who themselves follow, more or less exactly 
and more or less consciously, the course prescribed by the law 
on intestacy. A man informs his solicitor that he knows little of 
legal phrases, but that he wishes to settle his property strictly in 
the usual and right manner ; upon which the solicitor makes a will, 
giving all the land to his eldest son, and dividing the personalty, 
if any, among his widow and children, nearly in accordance with 
the Statute of Distributions. So close is the correspondence of 
the custom of the law, that whereas, in default of sons, the law 
vests the land in all the daughters and not in the eldest daughter 
only, the same rule is adopted, with very slight variation, in most 
wills and settlements of realty. Were the law altered, however, 
and especially were it altered after a thorough discussion of the 
whole question, the uniformity of these usages would be effectu- 
ally broken. Solicitors would feel bound to ask for more precise 
instructions from their clients ; testators and settlors would more 
fully realise their responsibility ; and the dispositions of landed 
property hitherto embodied in the common forms of conveyances 
would have to be reconsidered by the light of modern ideas. 
Here and there an old property would devolve to several children 
under the law of intestacy, and yet would be kept in the family 
by means of such fraternal arrangements as are made every day 
on the Continent. A few instances of this kind would go far to 
dispel prejudices against equal partition, while, in the case of 
properties to which no family sentiment attaches, directions to sell 
and divide the proceeds in specified proportions could hardly fail 
to supersede, by their superior convenience, the plan of devising 
to one child and charging portions for all the rest. Indirectly, 
therefore, the mere assimilation of real to personal estate, on 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 397 

intestacy, would probably effect a considerable though gradual 
revolution in the English land system, even though not supple- 
mented by any other enactment. 

Such is the object of Mr. Locke King's original bill " for 
the better settling the real estates of intestates," introduced in the 
session of 1859, and re-introduced by Mr. T. B. Potter, in the 
present session (1876). This bill provides that where any per- 
son beneficially entitled to any real estate shall die without a 
will, that estate shall pass to his executor or administrator, and 
shall be either divided or sold, exactly as if it were personalty, 
for the benefit of creditors and the next of kin. A lt real-estate 
succession bill " of the same general character was introduced 
by the government in the session of 1870, but that bill, unlike 
Mr. Locke King's, was intended to cover legal, as well as equi- 
table, or beneficial, estates, while it included various saving 
clauses more or less open to criticism. A third bill, introduced 
by Mr. Locke King and Mr. Hinde Palmer in the session of 
1873, after providing against certain technical difficulties, em- 
braced within its definition of real estate every kind of property 
which is not personal estate. Not one of these bills, however, 
goes the length of vesting in the executor realty passing by 
devise, in the same manner as personalty, including leaseholds, 
passing by bequest, vests in the executor under the existing law. 
Nor does any provide that real estate passing by descent or de- 
vise shall cease to be exempted from the probate duty imposed 
on personalty. Still less does any interfere with the rule under 
which a person succeeding to real estate, though he may inherit 
in fee-simple, is charged with succession duty on his life interest 
only, and is permitted to pay this duty by instalments — a rule 
which amounts to a legislative protection of landed property 
against a salutary liability to dispersion. 

A far more serious and difficult issue arises upon the various 
proposals for amending the existing law of entail and settlement. 
These proposals usually assume one of two general forms, widely 
differing, in principle, from each other. Either they contemplate 
a reconstruction of our land system on the model of the Code 
Napoleon, or they are directed to a simple restriction of the 



398 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

power whereby estates can be tied up for a life or lives in being, 
and a period of twenty-one years afterwards. Both of these 
schemes purport to promote free trade in land and to check its 
aggregation in the hands of an exclusive aristocracy : the former, 
by constantly and forcibly breaking up properties into fragments, 
easily saleable ; the latter, by prohibiting or curtailing the limita- 
tions which prevent their coming into the market. Thus, both 
involve an abridgment of the liberty now enjoyed by English 
settlors and testators, but with this important difference, that 
whereas the one scheme would only abridge the liberty of a 
bygone generation to control the action of the living generation, 
the other is directly at variance with full individual proprietorship. 
Under the French system of enforced partible succession the 
property of each citizen is rigidly settled, with the exception of a 
fixed disposable portion, but the settlement is made by the State, 
instead of by himself, and therefore without regard to peculiar 
family circumstances. The causes which facilitated the intro- 
duction of this great legal revolution into France have been 
explained by MM. de Tocqueville and Lavergne, and Mr. Cliffe 
Leslie has done much to repel the objections, both social and 
agricultural, which have been persistently urged against it in this 
country. It is a remarkable fact that no French government, 
whether Legitimist, Orleanist, Imperial, or Republican, has ever 
attempted to reverse it ; nor can we fail to be struck by the 
opinion so generally expressed in the reports above cited, that 
in countries which have borrowed this article of the Code 
Napoleon it is believed to work beneficially. On the other hand, 
it is not less significant that no practical English statesman has 
ever advocated its adoption and that even those English theorists 
who have least sympathy with the rights of property have appar- 
ently no great partiality for the agrarian constitution of France 
and Belgium. Their ideal is not the infinite disintegration of 
landed property among peasant owners, which they would regard 
as a retrograde measure, but, on the contrary, its concentration 
in the hands of one national land commission, or a number of 
municipal land commissions, under whom private individuals, if 
allowed to call any land their own, must be content to hold 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 399 

leases. With that far larger and more important class who are 
engaged in amassing wealth in the assured hope of leaving it as 
they please, enforced partible succession would assuredly find as 
little favour as with the landed aristocracy ; and if there be a lean- 
ing in this class towards any foreign land law, it is not towards 
that of France, but towards those of the United States and our 
own colonies. As for the great mass of Englishmen it may be 
taken as certain that a law placing the State in loco parentis, and 
declaring that a father who has made his own fortune shall not 
be free to deal with it by will or to disinherit a child, however 
worthless and ungrateful, would be in the highest degree unpop- 
ular. Upon these grounds, apart from all economical considera- 
tions, we must dismiss this proposal as an impossible solution of 
the problem before us — impossible because it would satisfy no 
class or school of thought in England, because it has no founda- 
tion to support it in the organic framework of English society, 
and because the very ideas necessary to lay such a foundation 
are entirely wanting. It would be rash to assert that so direct 
an interference with personal rights will never be accepted by 
this country, but we may safely assert that if the only alternative 
to English primogeniture were indefeasible equal succession, that 
institution would probably fulfil the prediction of Adam Smith, 
and survive for generations longer. 

For different but equally cogent reasons we must reject as im- 
practicable the bold suggestion of Mr. J. S. Mill, who condemns 
both the English and French rules of succession, that it would 
be expedient to restrict, " not what any one may bequeath, but 
what any one should be permitted to acquire by bequest or in- 
heritance," so that it should not exceed a maximtLm " suffi- 
ciently high to afford the means of a comfortable independence." 
A very little reflection upon the practical application of this 
suggestion ought surely to convince us that even if it were pos- 
sible to make it the basis of a testamentary code, it would be 
hopeless to carry it out with any approach to real equity. But a 
detailed criticism of it would here be out of place, because it is 
not so much designed to check the abuses of primogeniture as 
to realise a favourite idea of Bentham, by diverting the surplus of 



400 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

private accumulations into the public treasury — an object which 
may or may not be desirable in itself, but which is beyond the 
legitimate scope of our present inquiry. 

By what means, then, can the vices inherent in the English 
system of entail and settlement be remedied without impeaching 
the essential rights of proprietorship and disposition ? According 
to some law reformers, nothing more is required for this purpose 
than a simple legislative prohibition of entails upon unborn chil- 
dren. There can be no doubt that such a measure, if so framed 
as to exclude the evasion of its principle by the creation of 
"powers" or otherwise, might reduce by twenty-one years the 
period for which land can be lawfully kept extra commercium by 
the force of a single instrument. But it would leave the mischief 
of limited ownership and contingent incumbrances wholly un- 
touched within the allotted circle of a life or lives in being, or 
rather, it would stimulate family pride and legal ingenuity to 
devise new modes of settlement which should make up by their 
greater complexity for the brevity of their restrictive operations. 
Indeed, it is quite possible that a mere prohibition of entails 
upon unborn children, without any further change in the law, 
would have less practical effect than some minor amendments of 
a less sweeping character. In the first place, a broad distinction 
might be drawn between settlements made by will and settlements 
made by deed inter vivos, especially upon marriage. Posthumous 
dispositions of all kinds are watched in these days, on very suffi- 
cient grounds, with increasing jealousy, and posthumous entails 
are liable to peculiar objections which do not attach to others. 
When they are derived from wills executed in prospect of death, 
they are far more likely to be capricious and self-defeating than 
if they had originated from the same mind in the full vigour of 
life ; if the will has been executed long before the testator's 
death, from which it, nevertheless, "speaks," it may not repre- 
sent his final intention, and may even contravene his first inten- 
tion, owing to circumstances which have occurred since the date 
of its execution. In any case, the power of entailing by will 
is exercised secretly, and with much less security for delibera- 
tion than is afforded by the negotiations that usually precede a 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 401 

marriage settlement, which is manifestly, of all settlements, the 
one entitled to most indulgence. Upon this ground a second 
distinction might be drawn between entails upon the unborn 
children of the settlor himself and entails upon the unborn chil- 
dren of some other person. It may, possibly, be reasonable to 
allow a man about to marry the power of providing for his own 
unborn children by an ante-nuptial settlement, and yet quite 
unreasonable to entrust the same power to a stranger, animated, 
perhaps, with the senseless ambition of immortalising an ignoble 
name. But it may well be doubted whether it can ever serve any 
good end that a bachelor should be enabled to designate as his 
heir a child which may never be born, so irrevocably as to defeat 
his own capacity of choosing among his children when they are 
born, or rather when their characters are sufficiently formed. 
This anomaly might be rectified by an enactment importing into 
every settlement, by implication of law, a power of appointment, 
to be exercised at the discretion of the father, but only among 
the children, and, when exercised, to override the entail. It 
might also be provided that every tenant for life under an ordi- 
nary family settlement should have the power, by a like implication 
of law, to charge the estate, for the benefit of his wife or younger 
children, to an amount bearing a stated proportion to its annual 
value. The proportion so fixed would thenceforth constitute, so 
to speak, a legal standard of family justice, and though its adop- 
tion would be permissive and not compulsory, the consciences of 
many would be awakened to a sense of their parental obligations, 
till it came to be thought a disgraceful thing for a nobleman with 
.£50,000 a year to cut off his daughters, either married or single, 
with portions of £5000 or ;£ 10,000. 

A far more effective blow might be struck at primogeniture, 
as founded on family settlements, by absolutely 'putting an end 
to life-estates in land. Supposing this to be done, but the right 
of entailing to be preserved, each successive head of a family 
would be left to inherit the undivided property as tenant-in-tail 
instead of as tenant for life, unless the entail had been cut off 
by his predecessor. The chief difference from the family point 
of view would be that eldest sons, being entirely in the power 



402 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of their fathers, who might exercise the right of disentailing at 
any moment, would be, as it were, bound over in heavy recog- 
nisances to good behaviour. The chief difference from the eco- 
nomical point of view would be, that by virtue of the same right 
the ostensible owner of a property might charge it for his debts 
to its full value, instead of only to the value of his life interest. 
It is, however, incredible that, under such a law, the passion for 
making eldest sons would remain unabated. Since younger chil- 
dren would be consigned to beggary, where the father's property 
consisted solely or mainly of land, unless they were given shares 
of it or charges upon it, a universal custom of breaking entails 
for this purpose would probably spring up, and apportionments so 
made out of a fee-simple estate would almost inevitably be far 
less influenced by the spirit of primogeniture than re-settlements 
of the prevailing type. 

But, having gone thus far, how can we avoid going one step 
further ? It is self-evident that if life-estates were destroyed, no 
freehold estates would remain, but estates-tail in possession and 
estates in fee-simple. Now, ' since estates-tail in possession are 
convertible into estates in fee-simple at the will of the owner, who 
has usually the strongest motive for so converting them, it would 
appear that very little can be either gained or lost by retaining 
them. We are, therefore, once more brought face to face with 
the prior and larger question, whether any freehold estate in land 
short of absolute ownership should be recognised by the law. 
This question is not to be disposed of by dogmatic assertions 
that whatever rule be applied to realty must be applied to person- 
alty likewise. To such assertions a controversialist might rejoin 
that personalty and realty have not in past times been treated by 
the law on this footing of equality. For instance, the heir taking 
all the land on intestacy was specially exempted from the rule 
that sums advanced to sons in their father's lifetime should be 
deducted from their shares at his death, while, by a monstrous 
perversion of justice, a mortgage debt contracted on the security 
and for the benefit of the land, was primarily chargeable on the 
personal estate until Mr. Locke King's act was passed in 1854. 
This, however, is not the place to multiply proofs of the partiality 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 403 

formerly shown to land by a legislature principally composed of 
landowners — still less to discuss the incidence of taxation upon 
land as compared with personalty. There are very strong reasons 
for objecting to complicated reservations of future interests in 
personalty, and for doubting whether the efforts of the dead to 
regulate the enjoyment of wealth by the living in the interest 
of the unborn are sufficiently repressed by the rule against 
perpetuities and the Thelusson Act. But these reasons have little 
or nothing to do with the law and custom of primogeniture, 
which must stand or fall by the peculiar claims and obligations 
of real property. We are here concerned with the settlement of 
land, and of land only ; nor is it difficult to show that land is, in 
this regard, a thing sui generis, over which the State may and 
ought to assume a control far more stringent than it would be 
politic to assume, but not than it might rightfully assume, over 
other kinds of property. The familiar arguments in support of 
this position are derived from the fact that land is strictly limited 
in quantity, at least within the borders of each kingdom, and that 
its resources in a virgin State are not the production of human 
industry. These arguments are so far valid as to rebut what does 
not need to be rebutted — the presumption of any binding analogy 
between land and money. But the one decisive justification for 
treating land as an entirely exceptional subject of property is to 
be found in the entirely exceptional power which the possession of 
it confers. If we contemplate the supreme influence wielded by 
landowners collectively over the condition and especially over the 
dwellings of the people, if we remember that upon their estate- 
management depend the productiveness of the soil and the food- 
supplies of the country, if we realise that not only is the land in a 
physical sense "the leaf we feed on" but in a political sense the 
substratum of our whole administrative machinery, we shall not fail 
to perceive the full absurdity of postulating that it should be exactly 
assimilated to stock in plasticity for the purposes of settlement — 
but not, forsooth, in facility of transfer, in the course of devolution 
on intestacy, or in liability to probate and succession duties. 

The more thoroughly we appreciate the almost insuperable 
difficulty of partially reforming an institution so deeply rooted 



404 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and widely ramified as the custom of entail and settlement, the 
more irresistible will appear the conclusion that it is better to 
reform it altogether, by abolishing all kinds of ownership except 
ownership in fee-simple, with all customary and copyhold tenures, 
and by imposing proper restrictions on the length of leases. The 
conception of such a measure would demand an effort of con- 
structive statesmanship quite as bold as that of the Irish Land 
Bill, while its execution would affect still vaster interests, and 
must be spread over a longer period of time. Once carried, 
however, it would cut half the knots which together make up the 
English Land Question. One of these knots consists in the 
difficulty, expense, and delay attending the transfer of land, 
especially in small lots, and it is sometimes assumed, too hastily, 
that all this could be rectified by a good system of registration, 
such as exists in most Continental states, where a public court 
does what is here done by conveyancers. It should be remem- 
bered that even where a transfer of stock is effected by a mere 
stroke of the pen a long and costly investigation must often be 
previously undertaken on behalf of the trustees who authorise 
the sale. No system of registration could bring about free trade 
in land under settlement, but a register would become invaluable 
both to vendors and purchasers when every name in it would 
be that of an owner in fee. Trusts of land, with all their vexa- 
tious incidents, would soon be obsolete when there were no 
reversionary interests to be protected. Mortgages on old family 
properties would be rarer and more easily cleared off when every 
acre of land could be turned into ready money at the owner's 
pleasure. They would, however, be more frequently contracted 
on new purchases by capitalist farmers when it was discovered 
that it might be cheaper to pay interest to a mortgagee than 
rent to a landlord. 

But these advantages, it must be confessed, might perhaps be 
secured by less radical methods. What cannot be secured by any 
method consistent with the principle of modern entails is, in one 
word, unity of proprietorship. A settled estate is an estate which 
has not, and may never have, a real proprietor. For the common 
family settlement is a contrivance whereby the land itself may be 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 405 

saved from morcellement at the expense of the proprietary inter- 
est, which is dissected, split up, and parcelled out into more 
shares than a French lawyer would think possible. This process 
is repeated in each generation by a family compact between 
father and eldest son, in which no other member of the family 
has any voice, yet neither of the parties is truly a free agent or 
in a position to reverse the self-renewing dispensation of which 
they are little more than instruments, and no single person can 
be identified as the author. Now let us assume that, due provi- 
sion being made for vested interests, all this ingenious network 
of particular estates, as they are technically called, were swept 
away by law, and that every acre of English soil belonged abso- 
lutely to some assignable owner. Let us, further, picture to our- 
selves a case in which the operation of the change would be most 
severely tested — the case of an heir succeeding to a family 
property strictly entailed by its original purchaser and held 
together for centuries by settlements in the eldest male line, but 
finding himself at perfect liberty to sell it or devise it as he 
pleases. This is a case, be it remarked, which, but for the 
practice of re-settlement, would occur daily under the present 
system, and does occur sometimes, when the eldest son obsti- 
nately refuses to commute his estate-tail for a life-estate. It will 
hardly be disputed that a landowner so circumstanced has a more 
enviable lot, with greater inducements and greater power to do 
his estate and all connected with it full justice, than if he were 
the mere creature of a settlement, but it may be imagined that 
his gain is more than counterbalanced by some loss elsewhere. 
Where, then, is this loss, and who is it that suffers by the sub- 
stitution of ownership for life-tenancy in the case supposed ? 
Not, surely, his ancestors, who, having brought nothing into the 
world, could not carry anything out, and whose memory it would 
be superstitious to personify. Not his wife or younger children, 
whom he is now enabled to endow according to his own convic- 
tions of justice, instead of according to a standard determined 
by the paramount claims of primogeniture, before his marriage, 
if not before his birth. Not his eldest son, who, by the hypoth- 
esis, must have come into the world, or at least emerged from 



406 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

childhood, after the alteration in the law, and would have been 
educated in the full knowledge that his birthright, if any, was at 
the disposal of his father. Not any more distant relatives, whose 
interest in family estates, unless vested, is usually most shadowy 
and delusive. Not unborn descendants, who might possibly 
inherit if the entail were perpetually renewed, under the present 
law, but who are equally with the dead beyond the reach of 
appreciable injury. In short, we strive in vain to discover any 
specific individual, either in esse or in posse, who could be 
aggrieved by the legal extinction of life-estates and estates-tail, 
under proper conditions of time. Still it may be said that 
" families," that is, territorial families, would sooner or later 
cease to exist without the artificial safeguard of complex settle- 
ments, and that such a result would prejudice not only the 
happiness of their members in all succeeding generations, but 
the welfare of all the rural communities grouped around them, 
and even of the nation at large. And thus we are led back to a 
point of view from which the actual results of family settlements 
have already been estimated, and from which it may now be 
useful to forecast the probable results of the alternative system. 

The first, and not the least salutary, of these would be the 
strengthening of parental authority in those families where it is 
most needed. The father is, upon the whole, a wiser lawgiver 
and a more impartial judge within his own domestic circle than 
any providence of human institution, whether it be embodied 
in a lifeless deed or in a lifeless statute ; and, as Mr. Locke 
King justly remarks, *■ if such a disposer of property did not 
exist, we should only be too happy to discover such a being." 
Invested with full dominion over his landed estate, the head 
of each family would no longer have any cause to be jealous of 
his eldest son, or feel bound to maintain him in idleness during 
the best years of his life. Doubtless there would still be a strong 
disposition in most representatives of old hereditary properties 
to leave the eldest son, if not unworthy, the principal family do- 
main, with the bulk of the land ; but since he would depend, like 
his younger brothers, upon his father's award, and could not 
raise money upon his expectations, he would, like them, betake 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 407 

himself to some profession or business, and endeavour to increase, 
instead of diminishing, his future patrimony. In such cases, the 
position of the younger children would be very much what it is 
under the present system, during the parent's life ; but even in 
such cases, and still more in cases where hereditary traditions 
were less powerful, the father would seldom think himself jus- 
tified in leaving them a mere fraction of the property at his 
disposal, and would often direct his outlying estates to be divided 
among them or sold for their benefit. In these ways land would 
be constantly "passing out of the family," and though some 
might be left back to it by childless uncles, the unity of family 
properties would be greatly and progressively impaired. More- 
over, now and then a spendthrift who ought to have been dis- 
inherited would be allowed to succeed by a too indulgent father, 
and might gamble away in a year the purchases and improve- 
ments of many generations. This being the contingency which 
settlements on the eldest son are specially designed to prevent, 
and the occurrence of which is represented by the friends of 
primogeniture as an unmitigated calamity, it may be well to 
pause for a moment, and observe both what it does and what it 
does not involve. 

That it does not involve any destruction or even any V dis- 
sipation " of the land itself is so obvious that nothing but the 
persistent use of confused metaphors could have obscured it. 
Money, or money's worth, can be eaten, drunk, thrown into the 
sea, or otherwise literally consumed in unproductive expenditure, 
but a fortune consisting of land can only be squandered in the 
sense of being transferred from the dominion of one man into 
that of another or several others, which may happen to be the 
best thing which can befall the soil and all who live upon it. 
Considering the enormous injury done to any estate by the life 
incumbency of one insolvent — not to say, one absentee — pro- 
prietor, as well as the well-known tendency of families to degen- 
erate after one such disgraceful interregnum, the burden of proof 
certainly lies upon those who hold that, in such an event, the 
greatest happiness of the greatest number is promoted by keeping 
it undivided and inalienable, lest an ancient feudal name should 



408 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

perish out of the county. But this, as we have seen, is a very 
inadequate view of the whole case. Might it not be expected 
that if each successive heir of an illustrious house were actuated 
at once by ancestral pride and the fear of forfeiting his birthright 
through misconduct or incompetency, a healthy kind of atavism 
would develop itself in the landed aristocracy, and the virtues 
manifested by the founders of families would be more frequently 
reproduced in their descendants ? Nay, more, does not our 
knowledge of human nature, confirmed by the experience of 
Germany, America, and the Colonies, encourage us to hope that 
in terminating all indefeasible rights of succession, we should be 
unlocking hidden springs of energy and genius, calling into 
action the mettle of that "lounging class " which is the reproach 
of English primogeniture, infusing unwonted industry into our 
aristocratic public schools and universities, and making henceforth 
the antiquity of a family a true mark of hereditary strength ? 

In the meantime, no sudden or startling change would be 
wrought by the new law in the characteristic features of English 
country life. There would still be a squire occupying the great 
house in most rural parishes, and this squire would generally be 
the eldest son of the last squire ; though he would sometimes 
be a younger son of superior merit or capacity, and sometimes 
a wealthy and enterprising purchaser from the manufacturing 
districts. Only here and there would a noble park be deserted 
or neglected for want of means to keep it up and want of reso- 
lution to part with it ; but it is not impossible that deer might 
often be replaced by equally picturesque herds of cattle ; that 
landscape gardening and ornamental building might be carried 
on with less contempt for expense ; that game preserving might 
be reduced within the limits which satisfied our sporting fore- 
fathers ; that some country gentlemen would be compelled to 
contract their speculations on the turf, and that others would 
have less to spare for yachting or for amusement at Continental 
watering-places. Indeed, it would not be surprising if greater 
simplicity of manners, and less exclusive notions of their own 
dignity, should come to prevail among our landed gentry, leading 
to a revival of that free and kindly social intercourse which made 



THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 409 

rural neighbourhoods what they were in olden times. The peculiar 
agricultural system of England would remain intact, with its three- 
fold division of labour between the landlord charged with the 
public duties attaching to property, the farmer contributing most 
of the capital and all the skill, and the labourer relieved by the 
assurance of continuous wages from all risks except that of ill- 
ness. But the landlords would be a larger body, containing fewer 
grandees and more practical agriculturists, living at their country 
homes all the year round, and putting their savings into land, 
instead of wasting them in the social competition of the metrop- 
olis. The majority of them would still be eldest sons, many of 
whom, however, would have learned to work hard till middle life, 
for the support of their families ; and besides these, there would 
be not a few younger sons who had retired to pass the evening 
of their days on little properties near the place of their birth, 
either left them by will or bought out of their own acquisitions. 
With these would be mingled other elements in far larger 
measure and greater variety than at present — wealthy capitalists 
eager to enter the ranks of the landed gentry, merchants, traders, 
and professional men content with a country villa and a hundred 
freehold acres around it, yeoman-farmers, and even labourers of 
rare intelligence, who had seized favourable chances of investing 
in land. Under such conditions, it is not too much to expect 
that some links, now missing, between rich and poor, gentle and 
simple, might be supplied in country districts; that "plain liv- 
ing and high thinking " might again find a home in some of 
our ancient manor houses ; that with less of dependence and 
subordination to a dominant will there would be more of true 
neighbourly feeling, and even of clanship ; and that posterity, 
reaping the beneficent fruits of greater social equality, would 
marvel, and not without cause, how the main obstacle to greater 
social equality — the law and custom of primogeniture — escaped 
revision for more than two centuries after the final abolition of 
feudal tenures. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 
By T. E. Cliffe Leslie 

THE object of this essay is to describe the land system of 
France in respect of the distribution of landed property in 
that country, with the rural organisation in which it results and 
to examine its causes and effects. In considering its causes, 
laws and customs relating to property (including succession and 
transfer), and to tenure, of necessity form prominent objects of 
inquiry ; but their operation is so bound up with that of eco- 
nomical causes and conditions, that we should miss in place of 
obtaining clearness by separating what may be termed the legal 
from the economical class of subjects of discussion. It ought, 
too, to be premised that although political causes, in that narrow 
sense of the word which relates merely to the constitution and 
action of the State, do not fall within the scope of the present 
essay, yet the fact of their existence ought not to be altogether 
ignored. There are such causes, and their disturbing influence 
is powerful. A striking illustration of the potency of this class 
of causes is afforded in the fact that M. Leonce de Lavergne, in 
his celebrated work on the " Rural Economy of Great Britain," 
refers the progress of English agriculture during the last two 
hundred years, in the main, directly or indirectly, to political 
institutions, political liberty, and political tranquillity. The influ- 
ences and effects of the French land system cannot then be fairly 
estimated without taking into consideration matters excluded by 
the non-political character of these pages. On the other hand, it 
will be pertinent and material to their purpose to show that much 
which is commonly ascribed in this country to political causes 
(in that wider sense which comprehends all the institutions of 
a country, especially those relating to property in land), as the 
chief agencies regulating the division of the soil in France and 

410 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 411 

the modes of its cultivation, are in reality traceable to the natural 
play of economic forces, aided, indeed, by the law of France, 
but not the part of it supposed. 

The contrast between the land systems of France and England, 
two neighbouring countries at the head of civilisation, may, with- 
out exaggeration, be called the most extraordinary spectacle which 
European society offers for study to political and social philoso- 
phy. The latest official statistics in France, 1 on the other hand 
(following an enumeration of 185 1, now in arrear of the actual 
numbers), reckon no less than 7,845,724 "proprietors," including 
the owners of house property in towns — a number which may 
be assumed to denote the existence of eight million such pro- 
prietors now. Of these, according to the computation of M. de 
Lavergne, about five millions are "rural proprietors," of whom 
nearly four millions are actual cultivators of the soil. The official 
tables themselves return no fewer than 3,799,759 landowners as 
cultivators, of whom 57,639 are represented as cultivating by 
means of head-labourers or stewards, as against 3,740,793 cul- 
tivating their land 'de leurs mains. This last figure is again 
subdivided into 1,754,934 landowners cultivating only their own 
land; 852,934 who, in addition to their own, farm land belong- 
ing to others as tenants; and 1,134,190 who work also as 
labourers for hire. But these figures, as already remarked, are 
now in arrear ; and we may accept as a close approximation to 
the actual situation the following estimate by M. de Lavergne : 

Of our five millions of small rural proprietors, three millions possess on the 
average but a hectare 2 a-piece. Two millions possess on the average six hec- 
tares. . . . Two million independent rural proprietors, a million tenant farmers 
or metayers, and two million farmers and servants themselves, as well as the 
million farmers, for the most part proprietors of land ; such is approximately 
the composition of our rural population. 3 

It would hardly diminish the contrast of such statistics to our 
own, were we to adopt the figure which M. de Lavergne has 
introduced into his " Rural Economy of Great Britain," on the 

1 " Statistique de la France, Agriculture, 1868 (Resultats generaux de l'enquete 
decennale de 1862)." 

2 Not quite two acres and a half. 3 " £conomie rurale de la France." 



412 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

authority of a statement made by an unofficial member of the 
House of Commons during a debate — a figure which has often 
since been reproduced in England on the authority of M. de 
Lavergne himself — namely, that there are two hundred and 
fifty thousand owners of land in this country ; although it ought 
to be noticed that there is reason to believe an error respecting 
the meaning of the technical term " freeholders " was involved 
in this calculation, and, moreover, that it includes a number 
of suburban freeholds, and by consequence an urban, not a 
rural, class of proprietors, far less actual cultivators of land of 
their own. 

Four millions of landowners cultivating the soil of a territory 
only one-third larger than Great Britain may probably appear 
to minds familiar only with the idea of great estates and large 
farms almost a reductio ad absurdum of the land system of the 
French. Those, on the other hand, who have studied the con- 
dition of the French cultivators not merely in books, but in 
their own country, and who have witnessed the improvements 
which have taken place in it and in their cultivation year after 
year, will probably regard the number with a feeling of satisfac- 
tion. One thing, at least, is established by it, that property in 
land is in France a national possession ; that the territory of the 
nation belongs to the nation, and that no national revolution can 
take place for the destruction of private property. 

But the inquiry proper to the present pages leads us to 
examine, in the first place, the causes of so wide a distribution 
of landed property in France, and, secondly, its economic rather 
than its political effects. Its economic effects will prove on ex- 
amination to be in fact its principal cause. The notion commonly 
entertained in England appears, however, to be that, originating 
in the confiscations of the French Revolution, the subdivision of 
the soil has been not only perpetuated but increased in a geo- 
metrical progression by the law of succession established by the 
Code Napoleon. That it did not originate with the Revolution, 
and that an immense number of peasant properties existed in 
France long prior to 1789, is indeed well known to all students 
of French social history ; and those who have not concerned 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 413 

themselves with that side of history will find the fact fully sub- 
stantiated in the introduction to M. de Lavergne's t( Economie 
rurale de la France." The point which calls for notice here is 
that, centuries before the Revolution of 1789, one of the causes 
of the subdivision of land in France (one which we shall find 
to be the chief cause in our own time) was its acquisition by 
purchase in small parcels by the French peasantry. 

" I have in my hands," says M. Monny de Mornay, in his 
general report on the results of the recent enquete agricole, 
" contracts of purchase by peasants of parcels of land of less 
than twenty ares (that is to say, less than half an acre) com- 
mencing prior to the close of the sixteenth century." It was not 
the lack of landed property that left the peasantry of France in 
destitution, and drove them to furious vengeance two hundred 
years later ; it was the deprivation of its use by atrocious mis- 
government, and the confiscation of its fruits by merciless taxa- 
tion and feudal oppression. But in England, also, the number 
of small landholders at the close of the sixteenth century was still 
very large, though it had once been much larger ; even at the 
date of the French Revolution it was considerable ; and in 1 8 1 5 
(at which date it is calculated that there were 3,805,000 land- 
owners in France), it was, although it had steadily declined, a 
more significant figure than it is now. In France, on the con- 
trary, the number has increased to about four millions engaged 
in the actual cultivation of the soil, in addition to nearly a million 
other small rural proprietors who are the owners at least of a 
cottage. We are not here engaged to inquire into the causes of 
the diminution, the disappearance, one may say, of small land- 
owners in England ; but the contrast between the movement 
which has been steadily adding to the number in France and that 
which has extirpated them in England adds interest to an investi- 
gation of the nature and causes of the French agrarian economy. 
The results of such an investigation can hardly fail, moreover, to 
throw an indirect light upon the agrarian economy of England. 

As already observed, the French law of succession, which limits 
the parental power of testamentary disposition over property to 
a part equal to one child's share, and divides the remainder 



4H READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

among the children equally, is the cause commonly assigned 
in England for the continuous subdivision of land in France. 
And of an incontestable mischief in the operation of the French 
law, as regards the subdivision of separate parcels, there will be 
occasion to take notice hereafter. But a point of much greater 
importance is that the real effects of the French law of succes- 
sion cannot be understood without taking into account a process 
of subdivision taking place in France from a different cause, one 
really indeed traceable in part to the structure of French law, but 
not the law of succession — namely, continual purchases on the 
part of the peasantry of small estates or parcels of land. On this 
subject notaries in many different parts of France have given the 
writer surprising information in recent years ; and it has indeed 
for many years been a subject of such common remark in the 
country that even mere railway passengers through it can hardly 
have failed to have come upon evidence of it. M. Monny de 
M or nay states with respect to it, in the chapter of his report on 
the division of land : 

The fact which manifests itself most forcibly is the profound and continuous 
alterations in the distribution of the soil among the different classes of the 
population. In the greater number of departments the estates of ioo hectares 
might now be easily counted ; and taken altogether they form but an insignifi- 
cant part of the national territory. The proportion cannot be stated in figures, 
because it varies from one department to another ; one must confine oneself to 
saying that the West and South have preserved more large estates than the 
North and East. 

The North and East, he might have added, are the wealthiest and 
best-cultivated zones, though the south is now rapidly improving 
in cultivation and wealth, and, as will presently be shown, the 
process of subdivision keeps step with this improvement. After 
referring to the disappearance of estates of even moderate size, 
M. de Mornay proceeds : 

All that has been lost to the domain of large estates, all that is lost day by 
day to that of estates of middle size, small property swallows up. Not only 
does the small proprietor round his little property year by year, but at his side 
the class of agricultural labourers has been enriched by the rise of wages, and 
accedes to landed property in its turn. In the greater number of departments 
J$ per cent at least of them are now become owners of land. Peasant property 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 415 

thus embraces a great part of the soil, and that part increases incessantly. The 
price of parcels of land, accordingly, which are within reach of the industry 
and thrift of the peasant, increases at a remarkable rate. The competition 
of buyers is active, and sales in small lots take place on excellent terms for 
the seller, when the interval has been sufficient to allow fresh savings to 
reaccumulate. 

This is in some degree an official statement, and official state- 
ments in France are sometimes suspected of exaggerating the 
prosperity of the nation at large ; but it is confirmed by a super- 
abundance of unofficial and unquestionable authority not on the 
side of imperial government: In one of several passages to the 
same effect, in his " Economie rurale de la France," and other 
works, M. Leonce de Lavergne, for instance, says : 

The small proprietors of land, who, according to M. Rubichon, were about 
three millions and a half in 18 15, are at this day much more numerous; they 
have gained ground, and one cannot but rejoice at it, for they have won it by 
their industry. 

And in a very recent communication 1 to the present writer, 
M. de Lavergne observes : 

The best cultivation in France on the whole is that of the peasant propri- 
etors, and the subdivision of the soil makes perpetual progress. Progress in 
both respects was indeed retarded for a succession of years after 1848 by 
political causes, but it has brilliantly resumed its course of late years. All 
round the town in which I write to you (Toulouse) it is again a profitable 
operation to buy land in order to re-sell it in small lots. ... I have just spent 
a fortnight near Beziers. You could not believe what wealth the cultivation of 
the vine has spread through that country, and the peasantry have gotten no 
small share of it. The market price of land has quadrupled in ten years. But 
for the duty on property changing hands (Pimpdt des mutations), and the 
still heavier burden of the conscription, the prosperity of the rural population 
of France would be great. It advances in spite of everything, in consequence 
of the high prices of agricultural produce. 

Along with the subdivision of landed property thus taking 
place there is also, as we shall see, a movement in the land 
market towards the enlargement of peasant properties, the con- 
solidation of small parcels, and even in some places towards the 
acquisition of what in France are considered as large estates ; as, 

1 November 6, 1869. 



41 6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

in like manner, contemporaneously with the subdivision of farms, 
and the more minute cultivation of the soil, there is also a 
counter-process of enlargement of little farms, and in some 
places even a development of la grande culture on a splendid 
scale. But let us inquire first, what are the causes, economic and 
legal, of the continual subdivision by purchase of the soil in 
France ? The reader will bear in mind with respect to it that it 
is by no means a mere subdivision of existing peasant properties ; 
that small properties are gaining ground in the literal sense, and 
increasing the breadth of their total territory as well as their total 
number. And the continuous acquisitions of land by purchase on 
the part of the French peasantry and labouring classes can be 
palpably shown to be a perfectly natural and beneficial movement ; 
one proceeding, in the first place, from the natural tendencies of 
rural economy, from the mutual interest of buyers and sellers, 
from the growing prosperity and development of France, as its 
agriculture improves, as it is opened up by railways, roads, inter- 
nal and foreign trade, manufactures, and mines, and as both coun- 
try and town become wealthier ; proceeding again, in the second 
place, from, or at least promoted by, a sound and natural legal 
system ; facilitating dealings with land as the interests, inclinations, 
happiness — in a word, the good of the community — direct. 

One obvious consideration presents itself foremost, though too 
much stress must not be laid on it, that France has aptitudes of 
soil and climate for several kinds of agricultural produce — the 
vine, for example — for which la petite culture, in the form of 
manual cultivation (a form to which we shall see hereafter that 
la petite culture is by no means confined), is almost exclusively 
appropriate. Too much stress must not be laid on this fact, as 
just said, for the amount of cultivated territory under such kinds 
of produce does not amount to one-fifteenth of the whole ; but it 
is a fact worth mentioning, on one hand as an indication, so far 
as it goes, of the chimerical nature of notions prevalent in 
England, even among excellent farmers,, of the ruinous conse- 
quences to agriculture of the subdivision of the French soil, and 
on another hand as presenting a particular example of a general 
fact of immense importance in the inquiry — namely, that the 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 417 

class of productions for which la petite culture is eminently 
adapted (whether exclusively, or in common with the large system 
of farming) is one for which the demand steadily increases with 
the growth of wealth, trade, and agriculture, and the prosperity 
of the inhabitants of both town and country, including the small 
cultivators themselves. 

M. Leonce de Lavergne, in his ;.• Rural Economy of Great 
Britain," after remarking — and the remark is in itself one of 
no small importance and instructive suggestion — that, "capital 
being more distributed in France than it is in England, it is 
expedient that the farms should be smaller, to correspond with 
the working capital," proceeds : 

The extent of farms, besides, is determined by other causes, such as the 
nature of the soil, the climate, and the kinds of crops prevailing. Almost 
everywhere the soil of France may be made to respond to the labour of man, 
and almost everywhere it is for the advantage of the community that manual 
labour should be actively bestowed upon it. Let us suppose ourselves in the rich 
plains of Flanders, or on the banks of the Rhine, the Garonne, the Charente, 
or the Rhone ; we there meet with la petite culture, but it is rich and pro- 
ductive. Every method for increasing the fruitfulness of the soil, and making 
the most of labour, is there known and practised, even among the smallest 
farmers. Notwithstanding the active properties of the soil, the people are 
constantly renewing and adding to its fertility by means of quantities of 
manure, collected at great cost ; the breed of animals is superior, and the 
harvests magnificent. In one district we find maize and wheat ; in another, 
tobacco, flax, rape, and madder ; then again, the vine, olive, plum, and mul- 
berry, which, to yield their abundant treasures, require a people of laborious 
habits. Is it not also to small farming that we owe most of the market- 
garden produce raised at such great expenditure around Paris ? 

And further on (notwithstanding the favour which, in his love 
for political liberty and order, M. de Lavergne regards everything 
in the economy of England) he observes : 

Our agriculture may find in England useful examples ; but I am far from 
giving them as models for imitation. The south of France, for example, has 
scarcely anything to borrow from English methods ; its agricultural future is 
nevertheless magnificent. 

This passage was written sixteen years ago ; and a communi- 
cation to the writer cited above shows how the predictions it 



41 8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

contains respecting the south of France, and the great future 
before la petite culture, are now being realised under the eyes of 
its author. But it is not in the southern half alone of France 
that the peasant cultivator finds a perpetually growing demand 
for all the most remunerative kinds of his produce. The 
enquete agricole, for instance, shows a great increase in the cul- 
tivation of the vine in the East, the West, and the Centre, as 
well as the South ; while in the North — where the vine is, on 
the contrary, giving way before the competition of the plant 
of more favoured skies — the demand for the produce of the 
market-gardens, the dairy, and the orchard, afford more than a 
compensation. It deserves, moreover, passing remark that the 
little gardens and orchards round the cottages of the peasantry 
form, by reason of their careful and generous cultivation, the 
greater portion of the class of land which in French agricultural 
statistics obtains the denomination of terrains de qualite superi- 
eure. For dairy-husbandry, la petite culture, with its minute and 
assiduous attention, has such eminent aptitude that, even with 
respect to England, M. de Lavergne remarks : 

Although everything tends to proscribe small farming — though it has no 
support, as in France, from a small proprietary and a great distribution of 
capital — though the prevailing agricultural theories and systems of farming 
are opposed to it, yet it persists in some places, and everything leads to the 
belief that it will maintain its ground. The manufacture of cheese, for example, 
which is quite a domestic industry, is well adapted to it. 

He adds, what is not to be left out of account, for it is not an 
account merely of pounds, shillings, and pence : 

There is nothing so delightful as the interior of these humble cottages; so 
clean and orderly, the very air about them breathes peace, industry, and 
happiness ; and it is pleasing to think that they are not likely to be done 
away with. 1 

The raising and fattening of cattle for the market is another 
great department of husbandry which la petite culture has almost 
to itself in France ; yet it must be confessed that it is — though 
a marked improvement is visible — not as yet generally carried 

1 " Rural Economy of Great Britain." 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 419 

on with the same skill as in Flanders ; and the art of house 
feeding, which is the basis of the Flemish system of small 
farming, is still in its infancy in many French districts : a fact, 
however, which only opens a brighter future for la petite culture 
within them. And we may a fortiori — by reason, on the one 
hand, of the hold small farming has already established over both 
the territory and the mind of France, and, on the other hand, 
of the more recent development of manufactures, means of com- 
munication, and commerce — apply the language which Mr. Caird 
has used with respect to England : 

The production of vegetables and fresh meat, forage, and pasture for dairy 
cattle, will necessarily extend as the towns become more numerous and more 
populous. The facilities of communication must increase this tendency. An 
increasingly dense manufacturing population is yearly extending the circle 
within which the production of fresh food, animal, vegetable, and forage, will 
be needed for the daily and weekly supply of the inhabitants and their cattle; 
and which, both on account of its bulk and the necessity of having it fresh, 
cannot be brought from distant countries. Fresh meat, milk, butter, vegetables, 
etc., are articles of this description ; and there is a good prospect of flax 
becoming an article in excessive demand, and therefore worthy of the farmer's 
attention. Now all these products require the employment of considerable 
labour, very minute care, skill, and attention, and a larger acreable application 
of capital than is requisite for the production of corn. This will inevitably lead 
to the gradual diminution of the largest farms, and the gradual concentration 
of the capital and attention of the farmer on a smaller space. 1 

Thus the very productions for which la petite culture is specially 
adapted are the things getting new markets with every new 
railway, road, manufacture, mine, and increase of national wealth ; 
and that ascent of rural prices in France which M. Victor 
Bonnet has shown to be the result of its economic development 
is in effect an ascent in the economic scale of peasant property 
and the little farm. It follows that the subdivision of the French 
soil, which has been the subject of sincere regret and pity on 
the part of many eminent English writers and speakers, as well 
as of much ignorant contempt on the part of prejudiced politi- 
cians, is really both a cause and an effect of the increased wealth 
of every class of the population — the seller and the buyer of 

1 Caird, English Agriculture. 



420 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

land, the landowner, the farmer, and the labourer, the country 
and the town. Instead of being, as has been supposed, a cause 
of low wages, it has been a consequence of high wages, which 
have enabled the labourer to become a land-buyer — and even a 
cause of high wages by diminishing the competition in the labour 
market, and placing the labourer in a position of some independ- 
ence in making his bargains with employers. Instead of dimin- 
ishing agricultural capital, as many English agriculturists urge, it 
is, in the language of Adam Smith, both cause and effect of 
" the frugality and good conduct, the uniform, constant, and 
uninterrupted effort of every man to better his own condition, 
from which public as well as private opulence is derived, and 
which is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural 
tendency of things towards improvement, in spite both of the 
extravagance of government and the greatest errors of admin- 
istration." 

But, assuming it to be demonstrable that the subdivision of land 
in France is in the main the result of natural and beneficial 
economic causes, it is certain, nevertheless, that it could not take 
place without the co-operation of legal causes, that is to say, of a 
legal system which renders dealings in land simple and safe, and, 
by comparison with the English system, inexpensive. In the 
absence of natural economic tendencies towards the subdivision of 
land by its purchase in small lots, the best-constructed legal system 
of transfer would only tend to its accumulation in few hands ; but, 
on the other hand, under such a legal system as our own, what- 
ever the natural tendencies of the market, the expense, difficulty, 
and risk of buying very small estates would make them an 
altogether unsuitable and impracticable investment for the savings 
of the peasant and the labourer. Even under a law of succession 
like the French there could be no such poor man's land market 
in England ; the properties partitioned by inheritance would be 
rapidly added to the domain of the great landowner and the 
millionaire, able to run the risk of litigation and to procure the 
best legal assistance. In France every sale and every mortgage 
of land is immediately inscribed in a public registry in the 
chef-lieu of the arrondissement ; and any one has a right to enter 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 421 

and inspect the register, to satisfy himself respecting the title to 
any estate or parcel of land, and the charges, if any, upon it. The 
director of the registry is, moreover, bound to deliver for a trifling 
charge a statement of the title to every estate or parcel to any one 
demanding it. The private charges for the assistance of the 
notary in effecting a purchase vary indeed considerably, and are 
very much heavier in proportion on very small parcels than on 
large estates. Every sale of land is moreover burdened with 
the much-complained-of duty 7 of above 6 per cent. 1 But the 
transaction is simple, expeditious, and secure ; and the fact that, 
in spite of heavier relative cost, high taxation, and the competi- 
tion of public loans and other investments, the peasant is the 
great buyer of land in France, only strengthens the conclusion 
that the subdivision of land by the purchase of small estates is a 
natural and healthy tendency of the market, springing from the 
high profits of la petite culture, and at the same time from the 
happiness and independence which the possession of land is 
found by the experience of the people at large to confer. It 
shows, too, the error of a common impression in England, that 
it is much better for a cultivator to rent a larger farm than 
to farm a small estate of his own. If there be any truth in 
English political economy, the buyers of land in France are the 
best judges of their own interests ; and we have the practical 
testimony of the whole nation that the small estate is the better 
investment of the two for capital and labour. But, moreover, 
under a sound system of title, and of registration of mortgages, 
the peasant proprietor is not debarred from increasing the size 
of his farm ; he can raise money expeditiously and safely on 
his own little property, and farm adjoining land as a tenant, 
should he find it to his advantage. The French land system 
gives the small buyer of land the benefit of being able to raise 
capital on unexceptional security, and that by a process which 
creates no impediment to its subsequent sale. And such a system, 
so far from tending to increase the encumbrances on land, tends 
necessarily, in the first place, to bring land into the hands of 
those who can make most of it, and secondly, to enable them to 

1 6fr. 5 c. per 100 fr., inclusive of the deciine de gzierre. 



422 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

develop its resources by additional capital, and thereby to liberate 
it from any charges upon it. 

The amount of debt on the peasant properties of France has 
been enormously exaggerated. M. de Lavergne estimates it at 
5 per cent on an average on their total value ; and the marked 
improvement in the food, clothing, lodging, and appearance of 
the whole rural population is of itself unmistakable evidence that 
they are not an impoverished class, but, on the contrary, one 
rapidly rising in the economic and social scale. M. de Lavergne 
himself arrived at the conclusion that the great estates of England 
were more heavily encumbered acre for acre than the peasant 
properties of France ; and Mr. Caird concludes his description of 
English agriculture thus : 

There is one great barrier to improvement which the present state of agri- 
culture must force on the attention of legislature — the great extent to which 
landed property is encumbered. In every county where we found an estate 
more than usually neglected, the reason assigned was the inability of the 
proprietor to make improvements on account of his encumbrances. We have 
not data by which to estimate with accuracy the proportion of land in each 
county in this position, but our information satisfies us that it is much greater 
than is generally supposed. Even where estates are not hopelessly embarrassed, 
landlords are often pinched by debt, which they could clear off if they were 
enabled to sell a portion, or if that portion could be sold without the difficulties 
and expense which must now be submitted to. If it were possible to render 
the transfer of land nearly as cheap and easy as that of stock in the funds, the 
value of English property would be greatly increased. It would simplify every 
transaction both with landlord and tenant. Those only who could afford to 
perform the duties of landlords would then find it prudent to hold that position. 
Capitalists would be induced to purchase unimproved properties for the purpose 
of improving them and selling them at a profit. A measure which would not 
only permit the sale of encumbered estates, but facilitate and simplify the 
transfer of land, would be more beneficial to the owners and occupiers of land, 
and to the labourers in this country, than any connected with agriculture that 
has yet engaged the attention of the legislature. 

Such a measure the owners, occupiers, and labourers of France 
have long had the benefit of ; and the fact that in spite of new 
opportunities of migration and of steadily rising wages, even the 
labourer in France is a great land-buyer, proves the profitableness 
of la petite culture, as well as the wealth of the very humblest 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 423 

and poorest class of the French peasantry. Imagine the English 
agricultural labourers great buyers of land, and at the same time 
lending no small sums to the State ! One ought, too, to bear in 
mind, at the same time, the different histories of the two coun- 
tries, and the condition in which the tyranny, misgovernment, 
and wars of preceding centuries had left the rural population of 
France half a century ago, not to speak of later political disasters. 
Far from objecting to the subdivision of land which has resulted 
from the legal facilities for its transfer and mortgage, the highest 
French authorities are urgent for the removal of the obstacles 
created by the high duties on both sales and successions. " In- 
stead of placing obstacles in the way of changes of ownership 
{mutations 1 ), the true policy would be to encourage them. In addi- 
tion to the direct taxation on land {IHmpot foitcier), landed property 
is subject to the much heavier burden on changes of ownership. 
The value of immovable property annually sold may be estimated 
at ^80,000,000 ; that which changes hands by succession at 
^60,000,000 ; the duties charged upon both amounting to 
,£8,000,000. Such taxation is contrary to every principle, falling 
as it does on capital and not on revenue." 2 

We are not here concerned with the policy of duties on succes- 
sion ; but there is one incontrovertible injustice in their incidence 
in France which deserves notice — namely, that the successor 
pays duty on the entire value of the property, without any deduc- 
tion for encumbrances, so that it sometimes happens that he 
actually pays more than the full value of his inheritance. This 
monstrous system of valuation offers, of course, a great obstacle 
to raising capital for the improvement of land, while it adds not 
a little to the encumbrances already upon it — the sort of en- 
cumbrances added (sums borrowed to liquidate the duties) being 
moreover entirely unproductive to the owners. 

There are, then, two causes of the subdivision of land in the 
structure of French law — the law of transfer and the law of 
succession. But the fact that the subdivision promoted by one 

1 The term " mutations " is applied to all changes of ownership, whether by 
purchase or inheritance. 

2 M. de Lavergne, £conomie rurale de la France. 



424 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of these — the law of transfer — is in perfect accordance with the 
interests of all parties concerned, and the natural tendencies of 
agriculture in a country of growing wealth suggests a very im- 
portant conclusion respecting the other — namely, the law of 
succession. It enables us to perceive why this latter does not 
produce the practical mischiefs many English writers, not un- 
naturally, have assumed. The fact is, that (except as regards its 
operation upon separate parcels, where the property consists of 
such — a mischief easily cured in the opinion of the highest 
French authorities) the French law of succession tends in the 
main to the same result as the natural course of agriculture and 
free trade in land — namely, the subdivision of land. Secondly, 
the operation of a good law of transfer tends to cure whatever 
mischiefs really arise from the partitions effected by the law of 
succession, there being a steady flow of small lots through the 
land market towards those who can turn them to the best 
account. Lastly, it is established beyond dispute that peasant 
property arrests an excessive partition of land among children 
by imposing a check upon population. " The law of succession," 
observes M. de Lavergne, " is still the object of some attacks, 
which do not succeed in shaking it. It cannot be said of a 
country which contains 50,000 properties of more than 200 hec- 
tares that the soil is subdivided to excess. It is enough to 
read the advertisement columns of the daily papers to see that 
lands of several hundred, and even several thousand, hectares 
are still numerous. There are even too many of them, in the 
sense that the majority of the owners would be gainers by divid- 
ing them." x Of smaller properties, again, of only six hectares 
on the average (of which he reckons two millions), the same 
authority adds : " The owners of these live in real comfort. 
Their properties are divided by inheritance ; but many of them 
are continually purchasing, and on the whole they tend more to 
rise than to fall in the scale of wealth." In place of suggesting 
a radical change in the law of inheritance, he, like most French 
economists, suggests only a modification of it in the case of a 
number of separate parcels, together with a great reduction of 

1 " ficonomie rurale de la France." 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 425 

the duty on their exchange, which at present is the same as on 
a sale. Rational opponents in England of the French law of 
partition (that is to say, those who are in favour of a greater 
liberty of bequest, as distinguished from those who defend our 
own barbarous system of primogeniture and entail) ought to take 
into account that the French law of succession really effects, in 
the main, the very results which the testamentary powers they 
advocate would produce ; as is evident from the fact that the 
vast majority of French parents do not exercise the limited power 
they already possess over a part equal to one child's share. But 
the main point is that already adverted to — that a good law of 
transfer corrects a defective law of inheritance. Not only is there 
a continual enlargement of little peasant properties by the pur- 
chase of adjoining plots, as well as a continual accession to the 
number of small plots through the natural play of the market ; 
but there is even a natural flow of large capitals toward the land. 
Hence M. Monny de Mornay remarks that, notwithstanding the 
great diminution of the total domain of large property, and the 
perpetual increase in the number of little estates through the pur- 
chases of the peasantry and the labouring class, there has been 
for some years a current of ideas and tastes on the part of 
unemployed men of fortune, and of capitalists enriched by the 
trade of towns, towards investment in landed property. 1 The 
truth is that large and small property compete on much fairer 
and more natural terms in France than in England, and large 
buyers of land as well as small, in the former country, are free 
from burdens on the pursuit of their interests and happiness with 
which both are loaded in the latter. 

It follows in natural sequence that large and small farms — 
la grande and la petite culture — like la grande and la petite 
propfiete, really compete on fairer terms in France than in 
England ; and the former and not the latter is the place to see 
them on their trial, and to judge of the natural tendencies of 
rural economy in respect of each. The fact is that, while la petite 
cidture is gaining ground and growing more prosperous as well 
as more perfect and more minute, large farming too has made 

1 Eiiqueie agricole. 



426 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

great progress in France. Not only is there a great domain, 
within which la petite culture has exclusive or special advantages, 
but there is a common domain, for example, in the production 
of cattle, cereals, and roots, where both may co-exist and prosper ; 
and there is, again, a domain within which la grande culture has 
its own superior advantages. There were no less than 154,167 
farms in France of 100 acres — a number not far short of the 
total number of farms in England — at the date to which the 
latest agricultural statistics go back. There were, again, 2489 
steam threshing-machines in 1862, as against 1537 in 1852; 
and it is natural to infer that the chief employment of these 
was on the larger farms. In the production of sheep, again, la 
petite culture has not shown itself successful in France ; though 
it is proper to remark that the decline of sheep between 1852 
and 1862 is attributed by the highest authorities, in the main, 
not to the subdivision of the soil (the decline in their number 
being a new phenomenon and subdivision an old one) but to 
a number of wet seasons followed by disease, to a contraction 
of the area of sheep-walks by the reclamation of waste land and 
the division of commons, to an extension of the surface under 
wheat, and to an improvement in quality as distinguished from 
quantity. Nevertheless, it appears certain that minute farming 
under French methods does not give sheep an adequate range, 
and tends to other productions. Again, both in Belgium and in 
France the cultivation of the sugar beet, in combination with 
sugar factories, is found to tend to la grande culture, and no 
finer, larger farms are to be seen in Scotland than many in 
France, of which beet is the principal produce. 

In the departments immediately surrounding Paris large farm- 
ing is to be seen in the highest perfection, of which the reader 
who has not visited them will find a description in M. de 
Lavergne's " Economie rurale de la France." Yet, after noticing 
several magnificent examples, he adds : "While la grande culture 
marches here in the steps of English cultivation, la petite devel- 
ops itself by its side, and surpasses it in results." The truth is, 
as we have said, that the large and the small farming compete 
on fair terms in France, which they are not allowed to do in 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 427 

England ; and the latter has, to begin with, a large and ever- 
increasing domain within which it can defy the competition of 
the former. The large farmer's steam-engine cannot enter the 
vineyard, the orchard, or the garden. The steep mountain is 
inaccessible to him, when the small farmer can clothe it with 
vineyards ; and the deep glen is too circumscribed for him. In 
the fertile alluvial valley like that of the Loire, the garden of 
France, his cultivation is not sufficiently minute to make the 
most of such precious ground, and the little cultivator outbids 
him, and drives him from the garden ; while, on the other hand, 
he is ruined by attempts to reclaim intractable wastes which his 
small rival converts into terrains de qualite supe'rieure. Even 
where mechanical art seems to summon the most potent forces 
of nature to the large farmer's assistance, the peasant contrives 
in the end to procure the same allies by association, or individual 
enterprise finds it profitable to come to his aid. It is a striking 
instance of the tendency of la petite culture to avail itself of 
mechanical power, that the latest agricultural statistics show a 
larger number of reaping and mowing machines in the Bas Rhin, 
where la petite culture is carried to the utmost, than in any other 
department. Explorers of the rural districts of France cannot 
fail to have remarked that la petite culture has created in recent 
years two new subsidiary industries, in the machine maker on the 
one hand, and the entrepreneur on the other, who hires out the 
machine ; and one is now constantly met even in small towns 
and villages, old-fashioned and stagnant-looking in other respects, 
with the apparition and noise of machines, of which the large 
farmer himself has not long been possessed. Admitting, there- 
fore, fully an important truth in Mr. Wren Hoskyns' remark, 
that "the machine doctrine of 'most produce by least labour' 
is, as applied to the soil, the doctrine of starvation to the labourer 
and dispossession to the small proprietor ; and instead of belong- 
ing to the advance of knowledge, is a retrogression towards the 
time when a knight's fee included a whole wapentake, or hundred, 
and a count was territorial lord over a county," 1 regarding with 

1 Chandos Wren Hoskyns, M. P., Land in England, Land in Ireland, and Land 
in Other Lands. 



428 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Mr. Wren Hoskyns, machinery as made for man, not man for 
machinery, and the happiness and prosperity of a large rural 
population as the true object of agriculture and land systems, we 
see no reason to believe that the progress of machinery is incom- 
patible with the persistence of la petite culture, still less with that 
of la petite propriete, in France. 

But if large and small farming compete on fairer terms in 
France, as elsewhere on the Continent, than in England, and 
their relative position is accordingly very different, it ought to 
be added that it is only in the hands of proprietors that either 
la grande or la petite culture is fairly tried in France. It is not 
in the part of the French land system against which English 
criticism has been directed — the part which differs from the 
English, namely, the subdivision of landed property and peasant 
proprietorship — that its weak point really lies ; it is, on the 
contrary, in the part which resembles the English — the system 
of tenure. The British Islands are far from being the only 
country in which the question of tenure demands and indeed 
engages the earnest attention of statesmen and economists ; 
though on the Continent the problem of tenure finds more than 
half its solution in the system of proprietorship. In France there 
are two kinds of tenure — namely, (i) by lease, usually for three, 
six, or nine years (a lease for even eighteen years being quite 
the exception) ; and (2) metayage, according to which the pro^ 
prietor and the metayer divide the produce, the capital being 
furnished by the one or the other in proportions varying in 
different localities. It seems to be supposed by many writers 
that the metayer, if he has only half the motive to exertion which 
may be supposed to influence a tenant who has the whole of the 
produce subject to a fixed rent, enjoys at least the advantage 
of permanence of tenure. But such is far from being the case 
in France ; very commonly the contract of metayage is but for 
one, two, or three years. The truth is, the system of short 
tenures common throughout most of western Europe has a 
common barbarous origin. It belongs to a state of agriculture 
which took no thought of a distant future, and involved no 
lengthened outlay, and which gave the land frequent rest in 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 429 

fallow ; and it belongs to a state of commerce in which sales of 
land were rare, changes of proprietorship equally so, and ideas 
of making the most of landed property commercially non- 
existent. It is right to observe, however, that in many parts 
of France, although the stated period of tenure is commonly 
short, the farm really remains commonly in the same family 
from father to son, from generation to generation, provided only 
the rent is paid. Now, indeed, with greatly rising prices of 
agricultural produce, there is a steady and general augmentation 
of rents ; and complaint is much oftener made by tenants of the 
rise of rents than of the shortness of leases ; first, because the 
tenant is seldom turned out if he farms at all decently and lives 
in moderation, as he usually does ; and secondly, because the 
tenant has very often already some land of his own, has almost 
always, if no land, some money saved to buy it. He is not, there- 
fore, in apprehension of being turned out naked on the world ; on 
the contrary, he would sometimes hesitate to accept a long lease, 
having in view setting up altogether for himself as a proprietor. 
Again, although no legal customs of tenure for unexhausted 
improvements remain in France, where the Code has swept away 
all customary laws, yet compensation for some unexhausted im- 
provements exists under the Code. In the case of manure, for 
example, laid on by the outgoing tenant, he gets compensation, 
calculated in proportion to the time during which its unexhausted 
forces ought to yield profit. Again, where the farming is a joint 
concern between proprietor and tenant, under the form of cattle- 
lease called ckeptel, if the value of the joint property has been 
increased by the tenant, he is entitled, at the expiration of the 
lease, to half the additional value. For improvements, however, 
in the nature of drainage and irrigation no right of compensation 
of any kind exists ; and the absence of it furnishes in part the 
explanation of destructive droughts even in the best-cultivated 
parts of France. Under peasant proprietorship, in parts both of 
Germany and France itself, the most perfect system of irriga- 
tion may be found. Peasant proprietorship, coupled with, and in 
a great measure caused by, a good system of land transfer, is in 
truth the great redeeming feature of Continental land systems, 



430 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

which in point of tenure are as defective as our own. A good law 
of transfer corrects, as we have seen, a defective law of succession, 
and it also goes far to remedy defective laws and customs of tenure. 
It is, moreover, peasant proprietorship alone that prevents the ques- 
tions of both tenure and landed property from assuming the for- 
midable shape on the Continent which they do already in Ireland, 
and will do erelong in England. The report of the enquete agricole 
suggests additional powers of lease in the case of husbands owning 
in right of their wives, and of guardians, and, again, a reduction 
of the duty on leases, with, moreover, a legal presumption of a 
lease for twelve years in the absence of a written one. But such 
measures would give about as much satisfaction, and go as far 
towards allaying agrarian discontent in France as they would in 
Ireland, were there not a large diffusion of landed proprietorship, 
and a facility for both tenants and labourers of passing from that 
status to the status of proprietor, or of combining both. 

It is fortunate for France not only that peasant proprietorship 
already exists on a great scale, but that the tendency of the eco- 
nomic progress of the country, as already shown, is to substitute 
more and more cultivation by peasant proprietors for cultivation 
by tenants ; and to give more and more to those who remain 
tenants or labourers the position and sentiments also of proprie- 
tors. The increasing demand for, and rising prices of, the prod- 
uce of la petite culture make it more and more a profitable 
investment of the peasant's savings and labour ; and those very 
rising prices, and the rising wages, which also follow the develop- 
ment of the resources of the country, put both the small tenant 
and the labourer in a condition to become buyers in the land 
market. All improvements in the law of property, and in fiscal 
legislation respecting it, will tend in the same direction, since 
the costs attending changes of ownership and exchanges of land 
fall heavier on small than on large properties. All the highest 
agronomic authorities in France, instead of objecting to the in- 
creasing subdivision of landed property, are urgent for the re- 
moval of all legal impediments to its division, as well as those 
which lay disproportionate cost on its acquisition in small portions, 
as in those which retain it in common ownership. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 431 

The question of common ownership is one which ought not 
to be entirely ignored in a sketch of the French land system, 
however brief, although but a very few words can be devoted 
to it here. Upwards of four million and a half hectares of land 
in France belong in common to various bodies, corporations, 
communes, and villages. Of this area it is true that a consider- 
able part is in forest, managed by the State, much of which it 
would be inexpedient to divide and deforest. But the remainder 
is in great part simply so much land almost lost to the country. 
In a review of the reports of the enquete agricole, at the end 
of last year, M. de Lavergne pronounced that an effective law 
for the division and sale of the common lands would do more 
for the increase of the agricultural wealth of France than all 
other administrative measures taken together ; for in addition 
to the cultivation of land, now almost waste, that would follow, 
the communes themselves would obtain funds by the sale for the 
making of country roads, in which the southern half of France, 
especially, is for the most part lamentably deficient. An act was 
actually passed in i860, to facilitate the division of the common 
lands, but it has produced but little effect. An impediment to 
the division of the village commons in France, which has come 
under the writer's observation, arises from a kind of departure of 
the beneficial from the legal ownership. An entire commune, 
made up of several villages having each its common land, is the 
body whose authority is requisite for a division. It may be the 
interest of the villagers, and their wish, to divide their own 
common among themselves, but the rest of the commune would 
often prefer to see the villager driven or induced to bring his 
own land, with the communal rights attached, into the land 
market, where they themselves might become buyers. They are 
not desirous of giving the villagers an additional inducement to 
stay where they are. If land existed in such ample abundance 
that every peasant could have a sufficiency of land of his own to 
make a comfortable subsistence, or could at least have the advan- 
tage and comfort of a cottage and garden, the joint possession by 
each village of an additional common domain might be regarded 
as a great benefit ; but such is not the situation of matters in 



432 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

western Europe. Nevertheless the French communal lands, 
even as they are, give the French peasantry an advantage which 
the British peasant has been deprived of ; and they also provide 
a fund for the future augmentation of the possessions of the 
French peasantry, to which there is nothing now corresponding 
in England. 

It is not, however, the object of the present writer to compare 
the land system of France to that of Great Britain. Those who 
institute such a comparison will remember that it would be in a 
great measure imperfect and even delusive if confined to a survey 
of the present state of agriculture and of the peasantry of France 
— forward already as is the former, happy as is the latter, in 
many parts of that country. The history of the two countries, the 
comparative state of their agriculture and peasantry a hundred 
years ago, as well as now, must be taken into account. France 
has had only three-quarters of a century of anything like liberty, 
and less than half a century of tranquillity and industrial life. 
Nor in any such comparison should the respective effects of the 
land systems of the two countries on the town as well as on the 
country be overlooked. Whoever reflects what the French rural 
population would be, on the one hand, under a land system like 
that of Ireland, or even England ; and what its town population 
would be, on the other, if instead of being a third it were more 
than a half of the whole nation, and if instead of having a po- 
litical counterpoise in the country it found there only greater 
political ferment and discontent than its own, — must surely pro- 
nounce that the land system of France is not only the salvation 
of that country itself, but one of the principal securities for the 
tranquillity and economic progress of Europe. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 
By £mile de Laveleye 

Ji. M. .Ai. .AA. Jt ,AZ, .At. J/, ' Ji. ,A£, j*, 

I DO not propose to give here an account of the state of agri- 
culture in Belgium and Holland, having done so elsewhere; 1 
what I seek is to point out facts relative to both countries, calcu- 
lated to throw some light upon the following question : What is 
the agrarian constitution (i.e., the system of ownership and tenure 
of land) most conducive to the progress of agriculture and to the 
welfare of mankind ? 

A preliminary observation is requisite. Thirty years ago eco- 
nomists were in the habit of considering only the production of 
wealth, paying hardly any attention to its distribution, which they 
thought to be regulated by inexorable natural laws ; the system 
which yielded the largest produce being, of course, thought the 
best. But modern improvements in machinery having doubled — 
nay, trebled — the production without adding to the welfare of all 
those who seemed to be entitled to it by their industry, endeav- 
ours are now made to devise means of better distributing the 
produce ; and there are those who think that of two systems of 
agrarian organisation, the one which leads to the more equitable 
distribution of the produce is the one to be preferred. 

For example, let us suppose a certain area of land to yield a 
produce of iooo, distributed thus : 

i landlord 200 parts 

1 tenant 100 parts 

14 labourers, at the rate of 50 . . . . . 700 parts 

1000 parts 

1 See my books, " L'ficonomie rurale de la Belgique," and " L'£conomie 
rurale de la Neerlande" 

433 



434 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Suppose, on the other hand, the same area of land, worked by 
1 6 small owners, to yield but 960, and so give 60 to each of them. 
I should, for my part, consider this second organisation superior 
to the first. 

Neither extreme poverty nor extreme opulence is the thing to 
be desired. Pauperism and divitism alike are, the parents of 
vice in private and revolution in public life. 

In England a contrast is often drawn between Flanders and 
Ireland, and the former is said to enjoy agricultural advantages 
not possessed by Ireland, such as great markets, a better climate, 
abundance of manure, more manufactures. This is a point on 
which some light should be thrown. 

Flanders does enjoy certain advantages, but they are equally ac- 
cessible to the Irish, derived, as they are, from human industry ; 
whereas the advantages possessed by Ireland, coming, as they do, 
from nature, are not within the reach of the Flemish. 

Let us look, first, at climate and soil. The climate of Ireland 
is damper and less warm in summer, but less cold in winter. In 
Flanders it rains one hundred and seventy-five days in a year ; 
in Ireland, two hundred and twenty days. On this account, the 
Irish climate is more favourable to the growth of grass, forage, 
and roots, but less so to the ripening of cereals ; yet the Flem- 
ing would be but too happy had he such a climate, cereals being 
but of secondary importance with him, and often used as food 
for his cattle. He seeks only abundance of food for his cows, 
knowing that the value of live stock goes on increasing, while 
that of cereals remains stationary. Butter, flax, colza, and chic- 
ory are the staple articles of his wealth, and the climate of Ire- 
land is at least as well suited to the production of these as that 
of Flanders. 

As for the soil of Ireland, it produces excellent pasture spon- 
taneously, whilst that of Flanders hardly permits of the natural 
growth of heather and furze. It is the worst soil in all Europe 
— sterile sand, like that of La Campine and of Brandenburg. 
A few miles from Antwerp, land sells for 20 francs (16 s.) an 
acre, and those who buy it for the purpose of cultivation get 
ruined. Having been fertilised by ten centuries of laborious 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 435 

husbandry, the soil of Flanders does not yield a single crop without 
being manured, a fact unique in Europe. 

If in a Flemish farm of twenty-five acres there were but five or 
six acres of Irish soil, forming good natural pasture, it would be 
worth one-third more. Not a blade of grass grows in Flanders 
without manure. Irish soil might be bought to fertilise the soil of 
the Fleming. The ideal, the dream, of the Flemish farmer is a 
few acres of good grass. In Ireland nature supplies grass in 
abundance. 

But it may be said that Flanders is well supplied with manure. 
Doubtless it is ; but it is got only by returning to the earth all 
that has been taken from it. The Flemish farmer scrupulously 
collects every atom of sewage from the towns ; he guards his 
manure like a treasure, putting a roof over it to prevent the rain 
and sunshine from spoiling it. He gathers mud from rivers and 
canals, the excretions of animals along the high roads, and their 
bones for conversion into phosphate. With cows' urine gathered 
in tanks he waters turnips which would not come up without it ; 
and he spends incredible sums in the purchase of guano and 
artificial manures. 

True, it may be said, he must have money for that, and the 
Irishman has none. But where does the Fleming's money come 
from ? From his flax, colza, hops, and chicory — crops which he 
sells at the rate of from 600 to 1500 francs (£24 to ^60) per 
hectare ; and why cannot the Irishman go and do likewise ? The 
Irishman, it may be answered, must grow food for himself. But 
so does the Fleming ; for, in fact, apart from the special crops 
referred to, he grows enough to support a population relatively 
twice as large as that of Ireland. It has indeed been argued that 
the special crops for which Flanders is famous would be out of 
the question save for access to markets which are not within the 
reach of the Irishman. 1 But this argument seems to me to have 
small validity. The chief market for the agricultural produce of 
Belgium is England. And is London nearer to Ostend and 
Antwerp than Dublin and Cork are to Liverpool and Manchester ? 
Friesland and Holland send cattle and butter to England, and 

1 See Lord Dufferin on " Irish Tenure," p. 167. 



436 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Galicia ships oxen by way of Vigo, across that dangerous Bay of 
Biscay ; why cannot Ireland do the same ? 

Flanders exports prepared chicory to Germany, to Holland, to 
all parts of the world, and chicory roots as far as Warsaw ; hops 
to Paris, London, and Scotland ; flax to France, England, and 
even to Ireland itself ; tobacco to America ; colza and poppy-seed 
oils to the very south of France ; while, on the other hand, it im- 
ports corn from Hungary by land, and from Iowa or Wisconsin 
by lake, canal, railway, and ocean shipping. It is plain, therefore, 
that produce worth three or four times as much might well be ex- 
ported from Ireland to England. But there are manufacturers in 
Flanders, it is said, and none in Ireland, or only in Ulster. Now, 
on this point it is important to draw a distinction. Flanders pos- 
sesses undoubtedly a number of small local industries, but they 
are the consequences, not the cause, of her good husbandry ; 
and any country possessing the latter would be in possession of 
the former. The great industries of Belgium are situated in the 
Walloon country, not in Flanders. Complete proof of this is 
afforded by the following table : 




1866 

West Flanders . . . 
East Flanders . . , 

Hainaut 

Liege 



Horse-power 



3 '" 4 1 16,094 
12,984/ 

7 3' I 57} II3>o86 
39.929 J 



Thus the two industrial provinces of the Walloon country have 
seven times as much steam-power as Flanders. Then, again, 
Flanders has but one great centre of manufacture, Ghent, with 
120,000 inhabitants; whilst Belfast has a population of over 
150,000, and is increasing much more rapidly than the capital 
of Flanders. 

On the whole, for carrying farming to a high pitch of perfec- 
tion, Ireland enjoys far greater advantages than Flanders, the 
land being much superior, the climate equally favourable to the 
growth of valuable crops, and the same markets being at hand. 
Unfortunately, the Irish farmer has not the same agricultural 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 437 

traditions as the Fleming. And, of course, these wholesome tra- 
ditions, being the work of centuries, cannot be acquired in a day. 
In every country, the progress of husbandry is slow at first, on 
the one hand, because the peasant has received little education ; 
and on the other, because the processes resorted to elsewhere 
cannot be simply copied in agriculture as they are in manufac- 
tures ; they must be modified in accordance with the nature of the 
soil and the climate, and that is an art. The knowledge and prac- 
tice of that art in Flanders is of very ancient date, and it may not 
be thought out of place to say something of its early history. 

The most ancient historical records tend to show that the cul- 
tivation of the soil was always in a high state of perfection in 
Flanders. As far back as the time of the Romans, inscriptions 
on tumuli prove that the inhabitants of the borders of the Scheldt 
used to resort to England for marl to improve their infertile soil. 
From one of Eginhard's letters, it appears that in the ninth cen- 
tury flax and vines were grown at the same time that cloth was 
manufactured in the environs of Ghent. Numerous documents 
in the Middle Ages, such as registers of monasteries, donations, 
and leases, reveal the existence of processes of farming almost 
as elaborate as those in use at the present day ; manure in abun- 
dance, fields carefully enclosed with magnificent hedgerows, alter- 
nate crops, forage and roots for cattle. 1 Rural manufactures arose 
from the progress of husbandry ; linen and woollen fabrics were 
woven, *which ere long became famous. The weavers first lived 
in the open country, and subsequently flocked into towns ; and 
exportation led to the development of urban manufactures and the 
growth of a great urban population. It was wealth originating in 
the good cultivation of the country which created cities, such as 
Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Louvain, Brussels, and Antwerp. In turn, 
the wealth of the cities fostered the progress of agriculture and 
rural civilisation. 

One fact alone is sufficient to show the degree of advancement 
the Flemish villages of the Middle Ages had reached. As far 
back as the year 1400, dramatic performances took place in the 

1 See the author's " ficonomie rurale de la Belgique," chap, i and appendix 
No. 1. 



438 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

villages, the pieces being written, got up, and performed exclu- 
sively by persons belonging to the country. 1 Most of the villages 
had their societes de rhetorique, forming so many focuses vof in- 
tellectual life. In the sixteenth century, these societies adopted 
most of the ideas of the Reformation, and on this account were 
suppressed by the Spaniards. Industry was killed by war and 
persecution ; and agriculture and civilisation were arrested and 
even thrown back. Happily, the traditions of the past were too 
deep to be extirpated, and to them Flanders is indebted for her 
present wealth. 

The question arises, Can arts of such ancient birth in Flanders 
be diffused throughout such a country without the same early tra- 
ditions and training? It is a problem fraught with difficulties. 
Something, doubtless, might be done in the way of agricultural 
instruction, were all persons in an influential position, such as 
magistrates, landowners, clergymen, to exert themselves for its 
diffusion, and themselves to supply practical examples of it. But 
examples of more weight with small farmers would be the spec- 
tacle of some of the latter class enriching themselves by an im- 
proved system of husbandry. Were two or three intelligent farmers 
in each district in Ireland, having become landowners or heredi- 
tary tenants, to borrow from Flemish agriculture such processes 
as are applicable to the soil and climate of Ireland, a complete 
transformation of Irish farming might ensue. In the Belgian 
province of Hainaut, the example of a single farmer adopting 
the Flemish rotation was sufficient to bring about the suppres- 
sion of the fallow throughout the whole region. 2 Could nothing 
be done to produce agricultural progress in the same way in 
Ireland ? 3 

One most important fact in considering land systems is that 
the country itself and not the town is naturally the chief market 
for agricultural produce. It is a great error to suppose that agri- 
culture, in order to thrive, must have a market in great cities for 

1 See Mr. Vanderstraeten's essay in the "Annates de la Societe historique 
d'Ypres," Vol. IV. 

2 " £conomie rurale de la Belgique," p. 148. 

3 I have hardly ever met with an answer to the important question, Does the 
Irish small proprietor exhaust his land as much as the small tenant? 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 439 

its productions. The cultivators, on the contrary, may constitute 
a market for themselves. Let them produce plenty of corn, ani- 
mals of various kinds, milk, butter, cheese, and vegetables, and 
interchange their produce, and they will be well fed, to begin. 
But furthermore, they will have the means of supporting a 
number of artificers ; they may thus be well housed, furnished, 
and clothed, without any external market. For this, however, they 
must be proprietors of the soil they cultivate, and have all its 
fruits for themselves. If they are but tenants who have a rent 
to pay and no permanent interest in the soil, they certainly require 
a market to make money. In a country whose cultivators are all 
tenants, an external market for their produce is indispensable ; it 
is not so in a country of freeholders : all the latter requires is that 
agriculture should be carried on with the energy and intelligence 
which the diffusion of property is sure to arouse in a people. 

The province of Groningen was the best-cultivated of Holland 
before ever it exported any of its products to England, and yet 
there are no large towns in it ; but, thanks to its peculiar system 
of hereditary leases, the farmers could keep almost the entire 
produce of their labour to themselves. 

Suppose that by the stroke of a magic wand the whole of the 
tenant farmers of Flanders were to become possessed of the fee- 
simple of their lands, what would be the result ? They would then 
themselves consume the milk, butter, and meat which they are 
now obliged to sell, and in consequence have to dispense with 
animal food and to resort almost exclusively to vegetables for their 
support ; then they would no longer have to send what they do to 
an English market. Would they be the worse off for that ? 

Look at Switzerland. In proportion to her population, she has 
more horned cattle than Flanders; i.e., 35 head to every 100 
inhabitants, against 24 in Flanders. Yet while the latter exports 
butter, oxen, rabbits, etc., to France and England, Switzerland 
actually imports butter, cattle, corn, etc. The consequence is that 
Switzerland consumes twice as much animal food as Flanders ; viz., 
22 kilos of meat, 12 kilos of cheese, 5 of butter, and 182 of milk 
per head per annum. Of the Swiss, indeed, we may say what 
Caesar said of the ancient Britons — Lacte et came vivunt. 



440 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

How is it that the Swiss peasant is much more substantially fed 
than the Flemish ? Because the former is nearly always an owner 
of the soil, while the latter is but too often only an occupier. The 
Swiss has not for his market the insatiable stomach of the London 
market, which the poor Fleming contributes to feed ; he has a 
better one than that, namely, his own. 

Thus Switzerland and Groningen prove that agriculture does 
not stand in need of a large foreign market to make progress. 
A peasant proprietary is the best of all , markets. 1 

On the ist of January, 1865, there were in West Flanders, on 
an area of 323,466 hectares, 89,297 proprietors, and 693,904 
" parcels" of land; in East Flanders, 155,381 proprietors and 
845,220 parcels, towns and villages included ; in the entire king- 
dom of Belgium there were 1,069,327 owners and 6,207,512 
parcels. In 1846, the enumeration showed 758,512 proprietors 
and 5,500,000 parcels of land. Thus it appears that the number 
of landowners and of parcels has considerably increased. 

In Belgium I have never heard a complaint of the present state 
of things, nor any expression of alarm for the future, such as one 
used to hear in France before economists of eminence, such as 
De Lavergne, Wolowski, and Passy, had undertaken the labour of 
demonstrating the chimerical nature of the fears that the soil 
would be crumbled to bits. 

As regards Belgium, and more especially Flanders, foreigners 
should not be misled by the great number of parcels. The parcels 
enumerated are cadastral parcels for the purposes of the survey ; 
and very often the surface of the soil shows not the least trace 
of any such divisions. Not only do many parcels often belong 
to one and the same proprietor, but a single estate or farm of 
10 or 12 hectares generally consists of many of them. The land 
is divided into farms of different sizes in proportion to the cap- 
itals of the cultivators ; for example, 50 hectares to 4 horses, 
25 to 2, 12 for 1 horse, 5 or 6 hectares to a family without beasts 

1 Is another proof needed ? No vines are better cared for than those of the 
Canton of Vaud, being the agricultural wonder of the Lake of Geneva. Is 
the wine grown there exported like champagne, claret, or port ? Not at all ; the 
Vaudois drink it themselves. That is still better. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 441 

of burden, and a little plot for a labourer. When large farms 
are subdivided it is done on economical grounds ; viz., because 
they fetch higher prices when sold in lots — they are hardly ever 
divided in consequence of the law of succession. The peasant 
attaches too much value to the proper outline of a field to break 
it into pieces ; he would rather sell it altogether. 

Hitherto the consequence of the progressive subdivision of 
land in Flanders has only been to raise at once the rental, the 
gross produce, and the value of the soil ; at the same time that 
the number of landowners has increased, the condition of the 
cultivators has improved. 

In Flanders you do not find the land subdivided in the way it 
is in Ireland, according to Lord Dufferin, who has shown the 
evils of the kind of subdivision practised there. 1 From his descrip- 
tion it appears that in Ireland, at the death of any holder, and 
often during his lifetime, the children divide the land among 
themselves, each of them building a cottage on it ; or, if the tenant 
has no children, he sublets his land to several small farmers, and 
allows them to settle on it, notwithstanding the stipulations of the 
lease. Such breaking-up of the land must lead to the most 
wretched kind of farming, and to pauperism on the part of the 
tenants. As long as the Irish farmer has no better understanding 
than that, of his own interest and of the requirements of a sound 
economical system, no agricultural policy — neither fixity of tenure 
nor even ownership of fee-simple — could improve his condition. 
Although the population of Flanders is twice as dense as that 
of Ireland, a Flemish peasant would never think of dividing the 
farm he cultivates among his children ; and the idea of allowing 
a stranger to settle and build a house on it and farm a portion 
of it would appear altogether monstrous to him. On the con- 
trary, he will submit to extraordinary sacrifices to give his farm 
the size and typical shape it should have. 

How is it that the Fleming and the Irishman ^hold such dif- 
ferent points of view ? I think it is partly due to the difference 
of race, and partly to circumstances. The Celt being more socia- 
ble, thinks most of the requirements of members of his family, 

1 See Lord Dufferin on " Irish Tenure," chap. hi. 



442 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

whilst the Teuton thinks more of the requirements of the soil 
and of good cultivation. Nowhere to my knowledge does the Celt 
show himself a cultivator of the first order ; it is to the German, 
the Fleming, the Englishman, that agriculture is indebted for its 
greatest improvements. The Celt has in several counties sub- 
divided the soil for the sake of his family, without regard to 
the requirements of national husbandry. Throughout Germany 1 
law and custom alike have always been opposed to the division 
of farms. In Upper Bavaria this is carried so far that almost all 
the land is in the hands of wealthy peasants, keeping up a kind 
of entail by always bequeathing the whole of their property to 
one of their children, a small pittance being given to the others. 
But supposing the Irishman to become the absolute owner of, his 
farm, would he learn and comply with the requirements of the 
land ? A Flemish farmer's son always wants to have a good farm 
of his own ; he would not put up with a hovel improvised on a 
potato field. Could the Irishman but be brought to practise agri- 
culture as an art, and not as a mere means of bringing a subsist- 
ence from the soil, he would soon abandon the miserable system 
of subdivision which he has adhered to so long. But how is 
this taste for agriculture as an art to be imparted to him ? To 
extinguish the influence of instincts or tendencies, whether in- 
herent in the race or the historical product of centuries, would it 
suffice to introduce an agrarian constitution in Ireland similar 
to that of Flanders, or, better still, that of Switzerland ? These 
are questions which I confess myself not in a position to answer ; 
but they are questions which those who have the Irish land 
question to solve ought to face, when considering the land system 
of Flanders. 

I think it useful to subjoin a tabulated statement (see table on 
the following page), giving an idea of the number of farms (ex- 
ploitations) and their relative sizes. These results date as far back 
as 1846, no returns having been published since. 

It has often been asserted that the peasant properties of 
Flanders are burdened with debts, and that loans on them are 
raised at ruinous rates of interest. 

1 See W. Roscher, Nationalokonomik des Ackerbaues, p. 229. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 443 











Proportionate Number of Farms 


OF FROM 




to J3 


c3 






to 




to 




to 
















































Provinces 


5 c 


45 




a 


£ 


rt 


2 








to to 




rt ca 








<u 



















<u 


43 


rC 





43 









£ 




rtJ3 


















J3 3 
















O 


































"H 


H 


+J 


* J 





u-i 










O 




w 


in 


M 


LTl 


w 


M 


N 


n/ 




M 


Antwerp 


43-53 


8.62 


26.90 


10.38 


4-97 


2.26 


1. 18 


1.52 


0.14 


O.O5 


Brabant . . . 








34-n 


17.24 


36.20 


6.18 


2.30 


h}S 


0.17 


1.42 


o-53 


0.17 


Flanders, West 








57-42 


7-35 


19.24 


6.27 


2.66 


2.IO 


1.72 


2.72 


o-53 


0.02 


Flanders, East 








44.68 


10.08 


3 J -5° 


7^3 


2.77 


I.38 


0.8l 


1.02 


0.12 


0.01 


Hainaut . . . 








53-46 


11.99 


23.92 


4-83 


2.06 


I.09 


0.66 


I.32 


0.56 


O.II 


Liege .... 








45-72 


13.81 


25.76 


7.IO 


2.91 


i-35 


o-73 


I.40 


0.91 


O.26 


Limbourg . . 








30.41 


11.97 


32.62 


13-34 


5- 6 4 


2.50 


i-!3 


I.78 


0.47 


O.I4 


Luxembourg . 








18.92 


12.75 


41.88 


12.67 


5.28 


2-75 


1.48 


2.78 


1. 10 


o-93 


Namur . . . 








33-87 


18,97 


32.92 


6.26 


2.40 


1. 19 


0.76 


I.60 


1.44 


0.77 


Average of kingdom 


43-24 


12.30 


28.99 


746 


3-°4 


i-59 


0.98 


I.64 


0.58 


0.17 



The following table shows that the truth lies in the opposite direc- 
tion. In the remarkable return of the census of 1846, the govern- 
ment published an instructive table, showing which are the provinces 
of Belgium where loans are raised at highest rates of interest. 



Provinces 


Proportion of Capital bearing Interest 
at the Rate of Five Per Cent and up- 
wards to the Aggregate Loans 


Antwerp ^ 

Flanders, West y 

Flanders, East J 
Brabant "1 


Small farms 
Middle-sized farms 

Large farms 


Per cent 

{l 

f33 


Limbourg j 
Hainaut "1 
Liege 


1 40 

f 71 
36 


Namur 
Luxembourg J 


]7 6 
1 82 



Thus while in East Flanders no more than five per cent of the 
loans are raised on usurious interest, in the province of Luxem- 
bourg as much as eighty-two per cent of the loans bear interest 
at five per cent and upwards. 



444 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Were a statement drawn up of the debts with which land 
property is burdened in the various parts of Europe, it would be 
seen that large estates are generally more encumbered than 
small ones. 

In England the mortgages are reported to amount to fifty-eight 
per cent of the value of the land ; in France only ten per cent, 
according to Messrs. Passy and Wolowsky. In Prussia the eastern 
provinces with their large estates show greater indebtedness than 
those of the west with their small farms. 1 In Lombardy the total 
landed debt amounts to twenty-five per cent of the value of the 
land, and in the province of Sondria, where the farms are small, 
they represent no more than one-and-a-half per cent of that value. 

Every one knows La Fontaine's story of Perette going to the 
market to buy eggs ; the eggs are hatched into chickens, the 
chickens produce a pig and then a calf, and the calf becomes a 
cow. This dream of Perette 's is daily realised by the Flemish 
small farmer. 

We are often told that agriculture stands in need of capital ; 
that institutions in aid of agricultural credit are wanting. I reply, 
Good husbandry itself creates the capital needed. 

In agriculture the capital most needed is live stock, to furnish 
the manure by which rich harvests are secured. 

The Flemish small farmer picks up grass and manure along the 
roads. He raises rabbits, and with the money they fetch he buys 
first a goat, then a pig, next a calf, by which he gets a cow pro- 
ducing calves in her turn. But of course he must find food for 
them, and this he does by staking all on fodder and roots ; and in 
this way the farmer grows rich, and so does the land. The insti- 
tution in Flanders in aid of agricultural credit is the manure- 
merchant, who has founded it in the best of forms ; for money 
lent may be spent in a public-house, but a loan of manure must be 
laid out on the land. 

The poor labourer goes with his wheelbarrow to the dealer in 
the village to buy a sack or two of guano, undertaking to pay 
for it after the harvest. The dealer trusts him, and gives him 

1 See the excellent work by President Adolphe Lette, " Die Vertheilung 
Grundeigenthums." 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 445 

credit, having a lien on the crop produced by the aid of his 
manure. In November he gets his money : the produce has 
been doubled, and the land improved. The small farmer does 
as the labourer does ; each opens an account with the manure- 
dealer, who is the best of all bankers. 

The large farmers of Hainaut and Namur do not buy manure, 
fancying they would ruin themselves by doing so. The Flemish 
small farmers invest from fifteen to twenty millions of francs in 
guano every year, and quite as much in other kinds of manure. 
Where does large farming make such advances ? 

The chief objection made to la petite culture is, however, that it 
does not admit of the use of machinery, being reduced, as it is al- 
leged, to the employment of the most primitive implements of hus- 
bandry, and never raising itself above the first stage of cultivation 
in that respect. This has been put forward as an incontestable 
axiom, baffling refutation, and I believe is so regarded in England. 

To disprove this I need not point out that to Flanders are 
due the best forms of the spade, the harrow, the cart, and the 
plough — Brabant ploughs having for a long time been imported 
from Flanders into England. It may be said that these are 
primitive and not very costly implements. I need only reply, 
Look at what is going on in Flanders at the present day. 

The most costly agricultural machine in general use in Eng- 
land is the locomotive steam threshing-machine. Well, this 
machine is to be found everywhere in Flanders. Some farmers 
will club together to purchase one, and use it in turn ; or else a 
villager, often the miller, buys one, and goes round threshing for 
the small farmers, on their own ground, at so much per day, and 
per hundred kilos of corn. The same thing takes place with the 
steam-plough as soon as the use of it becomes remunerative. 

To keep hops in good condition very expensive machines are 
required to press it. At Poperinghe, in the centre of the hop 
country, the commune has purchased the machines, and the farm- 
ers pay a fixed rate for having their hops pressed — which is at 
once an advantage to them and a source of revenue to the town. 

The example of Flanders proves, therefore, that the division 
of land forms no obstacle to mechanical economy in farming. 



446 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Moreover, the subdivision of the soil is perfectly compatible with 
the methods of la grande culture itself ; the operations of hus- 
bandry may all be on a great scale, while the land is held in 
shares by a number of persons, like shares in a railway. I see 
no practical impossibility in such a solution of the problem how 
to combine the land system of Flanders with all the improve- 
ments of the age. 

It is often asserted that poor lands can be brought into culti- 
vation only by large and wealthy owners. This is exactly the re- 
verse of the truth — at least as regards the most intractable soils. 

In Belgium there are lands so sterile by nature that one-half 
of all the capital sunk in them is either lost or yields hardly any 
returns — so that it is not in the interest of any capitalist to 
work them. In La Campine all those who have attempted to 
set up large farms, were they ever so well managed, have ruined 
themselves, or, at any rate, lost money by it. 

It is the small cultivator only who, spade in hand, can fertilise 
the waste, and perform prodigies which nothing but his love of 
the land could enable him to accomplish. His day's work he 
counts for nothing ; he spares no exertion, and shuns no trouble ; 
and by doing double the work, he produces double the result he 
would do if he worked for hire. Thus he has made fertile farms 
of the dunes and quicksands which border our dangerous coast. 
Penetrating into the interior of these dunes in the neighbourhood 
of Nieuport, you observe little cottages with a few acres of rye 
and potatoes around them. Their owners succeed in keeping a 
few cows, which the children take out to graze wherever a blade of 
salt grass can be found. With the manure of their cattle they mix 
seaweed and whatever animal matter the sea throws up, and thus 
they raise crops of first-rate potatoes and vegetables. La Veluwe — 
the Campine of Holland — has been reclaimed in like manner inch 
by inch by the peasantry. I have elsewhere given an account of 
the rise of one of these sand villages within recent years. 1 

In Savoy, in Switzerland, in Lombardy, in all mountainous 
countries, land has been reclaimed by la petite culture, which 
large landowners could not have broached without loss. In those 

1 See "Economie rurale de la Neerlande," p. 212. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 447 

highlands man makes the very soil. He builds terraces along 
steep inclines, lining them with blocks of stone, and then carry- 
ing earth to them on his back, in which he plants a mulberry- or 
walnut-tree, or a vine, or raises a little corn or maize. 1 Whoever, 
after paying for the labour, should take a lease of the ground 
thus created would not get one-half per cent from his outlay, and 
therefore a capitalist will never do it. But the small cultivator does 
it ; and thus the mountain and the rock become transformed. So, 
too, under la petite culture t even when aided not by proprietorship, 
but only the kind of tenure to which the name of emphyteusis has 
been given, and which corresponds to a long lease, the most un- 
grateful land has been reclaimed in Flanders. The tenant, being 
secure of the future, builds a house, clears the ground, manures and 
fertilises the rebellious soil ; and though he will not reap the same 
benefit from it that a peasant proprietor would, he reaps much more 
than either a large farmer or a large proprietor would. 

Notwithstanding all the arguments of the most distinguished 
economists in England, especially Mr. John Stuart Mill, to the 
contrary, peasant property in land seems still to be regarded there 
as synonymous with wretched cultivation, and large estates with 
rich and improved farming. The reason is obvious ; the English 
are accustomed to compare the farming of their own country with 
that of Ireland. In fact, however, both England and Ireland are 
exceptions, one on the right, the other on the wrong side. In Eng- 
land there exists a class of well-to-do and intelligent tenant-farmers 
such as are not to be found anywhere else. In Ireland, on the con- 
trary, there is no peasant property, but only large estates in combina- 
tion with small tenure, often with a middleman between the landlord 
and the cultivator — of all agrarian systems the most wretched. 
Added to this, many centuries of oppression and misgovernment 
made the Irish people more improvident than the inhabitants of any 
other country in the civilised world ; thus what with a land system of 
the worst kind, and the general condition of the country, the case 
of Ireland is surely an exceptional one. All over the continent of 
Europe there is more live stock kept, more capital owned, more 
produce and income yielded by small farms than large estates. 
1 See my " ficonomie rurale de la Suisse et de la Lombardie," p. 71. 



448 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Look at Flanders, for an example. The soil is detestable, as 
we have seen ; and it is unhappily a country where a multitude of 
small farms are held by tenants, as in Ireland ; but happily the 
peasant proprietor exists by the side of the small tenant. 

The working capital of a farm, which in England is estimated at 
from £10 to £12, amounts here to 500 francs (£20). The gross 
produce may be taken at 600 francs (,£24) per hectare. As regards 
live stock, there were to be found in 1846, 55 heads of horned cat- 
tle, 12 horses, and 8 sheep on every 100 hectares superficial area. 

For England (not including Ireland and Scotland) M. de La- 
vergne gives the following averages for the same year : 3 3 heads 
of horned cattle, 6 horses, and 200 sheep per 100 hectares. 

Bringing these figures down to the common standard of heads of 
great cattle, 1 we find 64 heads in England and 68 in Flanders ; the 
land of Flanders being at the same time worse than any in England. 
The average rent of land in Flanders is 100 francs (£4) per hec- 
tare, and the value or selling price varies from 3500 to 4000 francs 
(£140 to £160). Rents and selling prices have doubled since 
1830. These results are not equalled in any other part of Europe. 

The fact that the Flemish husbandman derives such abundant 
produce from a soil naturally so poor is due to the following 
reasons ; viz. : 

1. The perfection of both plough and spade work. 

2. Each field has the perfection of shape given to it, to facili- 
tate cultivation and drainage. 

3. Most careful husbanding of manure. None is wasted either 
in town or country, and all farmers, down to the poorest tenants 
and labourers, purchase manure from the dealers. 

4. The great variety of crops, especially of industrial plants, 
e.g., colza, flax, tobacco, hops, chicory, etc., yielding large returns 
and admitting of exportation to the most distant countries. 

5. Second, or " stolen," crops, such as turnips and carrots, 
after the cereals, of English clover, spurry, etc., whereby the 
cultivated area is in effect increased one-third. 

1 In reducing sheep to great cattle, we have adopted the proportion of 8 : i, 
instead of the usual one of 10 : i, the English sheep being exceptionally superior 
as regards flesh and wool. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 449 

6. Abundance of food for cattle. Although the soil is not 
favourable to permanent meadows, yet, taking the second crops 
into account, one-half of the available superficies is devoted to 
the keeping of live stock. Hence the rise of rents, although the 
price of corn has hardly increased. 

7. House feeding of the cattle, by which the cows give both 
more milk and more manure. 

8. Minute weeding. 1 

Many of these agricultural practices are possibly only where 
there is a large agricultural population ; for which, on the other 
hand, work is found at the same time by these very practices. 

The following table shows the amount of labour employed in 
the cultivation of the soil in Belgium : 



Provinces 



X 8 



<& 



£8 w 



5 < 



2 S 



k a 
a > 

1 



£S 



£3h 



sat 
Sis 



1 HH < 



K3 

OK 



S z 

7 Q 

o < 

K ~ 

S I 



Da <; 



SQ w 

; £ 



Antwerp 

Brabant 

Flanders, West . . . 
Flanders, East .... 

Hainaut 

Liege 

Limbourg 

Luxembourg .... 

Namur 

Aggregate of kingdom 



70 
47 
50 
38 
52 
64 
130 
237 
68 



17 
37 
37 
26 



74 
64 

57 
60 
70 
64 

55 
77 
50 



84 
78 
56 
57 
57 
69 
61 
7i 
57 



83 

86 

65 
[03 

^7 
46 

58 
5 1 
42 



i-7 
18 

x 3 

14 
23 
20 

19 
30 

J 9 



4.76 
346 
3.86 
2.76 

3-14 

4.49 
6.72 

IJ -35 
7.42 



47.935 
83,130 

78,498 
88,305 

105,977 
55.347 
3 2 ' : 70 
36,244 

44,944 



106,080 
183,522 
149,668 
203,561 
157,071 
76,290 
69,158 

69'537 
68,714 



68 



-5 



61 



65 



97 



19 



4-55 



572,550 



1,083,601 



1 See my " £conomie rurale de la Belgique." The reader will pardon my refer- 
ring him to a previous work of mine for particulars which need not be repeated 
here. Even in the writings of the best foreign authors errors occur with regard 
to Belgium. Thus Mr. Stuart Mill, in his " Principles of Political Economy," 
quotes a passage from McCulloch in which Hainaut and the two Flanders are 
alluded to as being circumstanced alike — whereas, in fact, their conditions are 
different in every respect. 

2 Comprising the farmers themselves, the farm labourers, and labourers proper. 

3 Being the proportion of women of the three preceding classes to 100 men. 

4 " Holders " includes both freehold- and tenant-farmers. 



45o 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



This table is taken from the official statistics published by the 
Belgian government in 1850. Those published in 1861 relate 
to the year 1856, and are less detailed. In the following table, I 
have given the data relative to the two Flanders, Namur, Luxem- 
bourg, and the entire kingdom, as derived from those statistics. 
Although the two tables are drawn up on different statistical 
plans, the returns, are about the same, and therefore the data 
may be considered the more trustworthy. 





Flanders, West 


Flanders, East 


Luxembourg 




Males 


Females 


Males 


Females 


Males 


Females 


Owners, tenants, managers, 
and directors of farms . . 

Gardeners, kitchen-gardeners, 
horticulturists, arboricultur- 
ists, silk-worm rearers, vint- 


32,617 

1,727 

3°4 
63,957 

673 


28,132 

546 
4 

39^39 

137 


79,207 

1,478 
432 

63,174 
980 


35>8 12 

360 
31,802 

1 


19,223 

62 

532 

14,445 
580 


4,671 


Shepherds, graziers, herdsmen 

Field hands and day labourers, 

farm-servants of both sexes 

Wood-cutters and other wood 

labourers, gamekeepers, and 

others 


46 

7,227 

3 




99,278 


67,958 


145,271 


67,975 


34,842 


n,947 





Namur 


Entire Kingdom 




Males 


Females 


Males 


Females 


Total 


Landowners and tenants, farmers 












and managers of estates . . . 


15,226 


982 


3° >473 


122,630 


423,103 


Gardeners, kitchen-gardeners, hor- 












ticulturists, arboriculturists, silk- 












worm rearers, vintners .... 


308 




8,681 


1,462 


10,323 


Shepherds, graziers, drovers . . 


627 


5 


4,811 


396 


5,207 


Field hands and day laborers, 












farm-servants of both sexes . . 


28,621 


H,347 


388,312 


228,115" 


616,427 


Wood-cutters and other wood la- 












bourers, gamekeepers, and others 


1,059 


2 


6,757 


298 


7,055 




45,841 


12,836 


709,214 


352,901 


1,062,115 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 451 

It has often been argued from the example of Ireland that the 
subdivision of land must tend to produce an excessive increase 
of the population. Arthur Young prophesied that the subdivision 
of the soil would convert France into a rabbit-warren. 

Now the fact is that in no other country, not actually in a 
state of decadency, is the increase of the population slower than 
in France. The same may be said of Flanders, where the popu- 
lation increases at a rate much inferior to that of the rest of the 
kingdom ; viz. : 



Population in 



[846 



[866 



Proportional 
Increase 



Flanders, West 
Flanders, East . 
Entire kingdom 



643,004 

793^64 

4>337>*9 6 



659.938 
824,175 

4.984.35 1 



Per ce?it 
2.6 

3-8 
i5-i 



Yet in Flanders the soil is greatly subdivided, as shown by figures 
given above. 

To prove the superiority of large farming, Arthur Young made 
the following calculation : 

To cultivate a district of 4000 hectares, divided into farms of 
a single plough, 666 men and 1 000 horses would be required ; 
whereas in farms of three ploughs apiece the same district would 
require only 545 men and 681 horses; being a saving of 121 
men and 319 horses, capable of other useful employment in the 
production of manufactured articles. Therefore the district with 
large farms will be better provided for than the one with small 
holdings, and consequently large farming is preferable to small 
farming. 

Young's calculation is perfectly correct so far as it goes ; never- 
theless only one thing is necessary to overthrow his conclusion — 
namely, that the smaller farms should yield more produce, and 
more valuable produce, than the large ones ; and this is precisely 
the case all over the continent of Europe, without a single ex- 
ception that I know of, wherever la petite and la grande pro- 
pne'te are seen in competition. "At the present day," says 



452 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



M. Hippolyte Passy, 1 "on the same area and under equal circum- 
stances, the largest clear produce is yielded by small farming, which, 
besides, by increasing the country population, opens a safe market 
to the products of manufacturing industry." Which are the rich- 
est and most productive provinces of France ? Precisely those in 
which the small landowners are in the majority, especially Flanders 
and Alsace. In this respect I need but refer the reader to the 
works of M. Leonce de Lavergne. 

In the eastern provinces of Prussia (Prussia proper and Posen) 
there are hardly any but large estates, worked by the owners 
themselves. In Westphalia and 'the Rhenish provinces there are 
to be found peasant proprietors and small farmers. The eastern 
provinces are inferior to those of the west, even with respect to 
live stock, as appears from the following table : 

There are to every square mile in the 



Provinces 


Metres of Road 


Inhabitants 


Heads of Large 
Cattle 


Posen 

Prussia . 

Westphalia 

Rhineland 


5,000^1 

4,000 J 
14,000"! 
17,000 J 


3000 
6000 


2980 

T3569 
I 4024 



In the western provinces agricultural wages are double what they 
are in the eastern ones ; and while in the latter there are nine inhab- 
itants to every house, there are but five and a half in the former. 

As regards Saxony, Dr. Engel's well-known statistics have shown 
that small farms keep twice as much live stock as large ones. 2 

As to Italy, Mr. Kay expresses himself as follows in his " Notes 
of a Traveller " : 

In 1836, Tuscany contained 130,190 landed estates. In the dominions of 
the Pope, from the frontier of the Neapolitan to that of the Tuscan state, the 
whole country is reckoned to be divided into about 600 landed estates. Com- 
pare the husbandry of Tuscany, the perfect system of drainage, for instance, 



1 See " Memoire de PAcademie des sciences morales et politiques dans la 
seance du 4 Janvier, 1845." 

2 See " Zeitschrift des Statistichen Bureau's des K. Sachsischen Ministeriums 
des Innern," No. 1, February, 1857. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 453 

in the straits of the Arno, by drains between every two beds of land, all con- 
nected with a main drain — being our own lately introduced furrow tile drain- 
ing, but connected here with the irrigation as well as the draining of land ; 
compare the clean state of the growing crops, the variety and succession of 
green crops for feeding cattle in the house all the year round, the attention to 
collecting manure, the garden-like cultivation of the whole face of the country 
— compare this with the desert waste of the Roman Maremma, or with the 
Papal country, of soil and productiveness as good as that of the Vale of 
the Arno, the country about Foligno and Perugia ; compare the well-clothed 
busy people, the smart country girls at work about their cows' food, or their 
silkworm leaves, with the ragged, sallow, indolent population lounging about 
their doors in the Papal dominions, starving, and with nothing to do on the 
great estates ; nay, compare the agricultural industry in this land of small 
farms with the best of our large-farms districts, with Tweedside or East 
Lothian, and snap your finger at the wisdom of our St. Johns and all the host 
of our bookmakers on agriculture, who bleat after each other that small farms 
are incompatible with a high and perfect state of cultivation. 

In Lombardy, in the province of Como, where la petite cultiire 
prevails, the value of the cattle per hectare in cultivation is 161 
francs ; whilst in the province of Mantua, with its large farms 
and fine pasture land, it is but 94 francs. 1 

In Portugal there are in the large-farming province of Alemtego 
but 329,277 inhabitants on an area of 2,454,062 hectares, with 
an annual production — exclusive of cattle — worth 54,762,500 
francs, or 22.72 francs per hectare. On the contrary, in the 
small-farming province of Minho, there are on an area of 749,994 
hectares, 914,400 inhabitants, producing — exclusive of cattle — 
37,756,250 francs per annum, or 50.34 francs per hectare, being 
more than twice the production of Alemtego. 2 

1 See my " fitudes d'economie rurale en Lombardie," p. 112, and Zacini's ex- 
cellent book, " La Proprieta fondiaria in Lombardia." 

2 With reference to Portugal, see the excellent work, " Compendio de Eco- 
nomia rural," by Senhor A. Rebello da Silva, Colonial Minister of Portugal in 
1870; and J. Forrester's "Portugal and its Capabilities," in which we find the 
following passages: "The Minho is justly termed the garden of Portugal." 
" The Alemtego is the largest, and perhaps naturally the richest, province of 
Portugal. Once the granary of Portugal, it is now the worst cultivated and most 
thinly populated of the entire kingdom. The reason of this change may be 
traced to the following fact. The fecundity of this province has been proverbial 
from the remotest times ; and people of substance, relinquishing the North, came 
here, and united many small farms in a few extensive estates, which have 



454 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



In Spain compare Estremadura, the Castiles, or even Anda- 
lusia, with the kingdom of Valencia, and with Lower Catalonia. 
Where small farming prevails, the land is a garden ; where the 
estates are large, a desert. 

In Belgium the small-farm provinces, the Flanders, own more 
cattle, yield more produce, are more carefully cultivated, and have 
more agricultural capital than those in which large estates are pre- 
dominant, as will be seen from the subjoined table. Here I have 
compared East Flanders with Namur ; and it is to be noticed that 
in the former province the land is much poorer than in the latter. 



Namur 


Flanders, East 


35 


68 


250 francs 


450 francs 


300 francs 


600 francs 


50 francs 


93 francs 


1804 francs 


3218 francs 


138 


263 



Heads of cattle per 100 hectares . . . 

Working capital per hectare 

Produce per hectare . . . 

Rent per hectare 

Average selling price of land per hectare 
Number of inhabitants per 100 hectares . 



Let us carry out the parallel drawn by Arthur Young, between 
the results of small and large farming, by placing spade and 
plough side by side before us. 

Throughout Flanders, and especially in the Waes country, the 
spade is often used to prepare the soil before sowing. To dig 
up one hectare with the spade, at the rate of 5 ares per diem, 
20 days are required, and an outlay of 30 francs ; whilst the 
same work done with the plough would cost no more than 6 
or 7 francs, perhaps less. Thus spade-work costs five times as 
much as plough-work, which is an enormous balance in favour 
of the latter. 



descended from father to son undivided, undiminished, and through mismanage- 
ment and neglect are at this moment so many waste lands in the possession of 
proprietors who themselves have not the means of cultivating them, and who will 
not allow others to do so. Hence, there being no employment for agricultural 
labourers, the Transteganos have dispersed themselves over the other provinces, 
leaving the feudal lords in full possession of their land, their pride, and their 
poverty" (p. 102). Of the south of Portugal it may also be said, Latifundia 
perdidere Lusitaniam. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 455 

Yet the Fleming persists in calling the spade a gold mine 
(De Spa is dc Gondmyn der Boeren) ; and in Lombardy they 
have a proverb to the same effect : Se V aratro ha il vomero di 
ferro, la vanga ha la punt a d'oro (" If the plough has a plough- 
share of iron, the spade has a point of gold "). How is this to be 
accounted for ? Is it routine or miscalculation ? Neither ; the 
peasant only means to say that a large increase in the returns is 
well worth a larger outlay. 

In Lombardy it has been computed that in two fields of the 
same quality, and manured in the same way, one being worked 
with the spade and the other with the plough, the returns of the 
former were to those of the latter as 66 to 28. Assume the 
produce to be but double, it will make up for twice the excess 
of expense. 

In Flanders this difference is not very considerable for cereals ; 
but the Fleming does not grow corn alone. In the same year 
in which corn comes up in the rotation he has a second crop 
{recolte derobee), which of itself is worth three or four times the 
excess of 2 5 francs in the cost of spade-work ; and if after this 
he lifts such crops as flax, chicory, tobacco, and colza, returning 
from 600 to 1200 francs per hectare, the excess in the prelimi- 
nary outlay dwindles down to a mere nothing. Young, and most 
English writers on agriculture after him, reason just as if no other 
crops were grown than cereals ; a mistake with respect to the 
nature and objects of la petite culture which vitiates all their 
conclusions. 

I am fully aware that these second crops may be derived also 
from the plough, and so they are indeed by many Flemish 
farmers, but then, in the first place, the land is better prepared 
by the spade for receiving the seed ; and secondly, to weed and 
to gather crops of this kind much more labour is required, and 
therefore a larger population, by whom the spade-work too may 
be done. All these things go hand in hand, there being an 
intimate connection between such economic factors as large pop- 
ulation, minute labour, rich produce, small rural industries, like 
flax-steeping and peeling, preparation of chicory, tobacco, and 
hops, oil-pressing, etc. It is a system which must be looked at 



456 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

as a whole ; and it is one by which a country, one might say by 
nature incapable of cultivation, has become the garden of Europe. 

Thus the example of Flanders shows that, as far as the pro- 
duction of wealth and even the clear produce are concerned, 
the spade ought to get a verdict in an action against the plough. 
I admit at once that it would be well for the spadesman could 
he have his work done for him by horses and steam engines, 
that his work is harder and his returns smaller than is good for 
man. But would he be happier, wealthier, better, under a land 
system under which he would be a labourer for hire without pros- 
pect of elevation ? Especially would he be so on the barren 
sands of Flanders ? 

The system of tenure usual in Belgium is a lease. In the 
Middle Ages there also existed the form of tenure known by the 
name of metayage, of which, however, traces are now to be 
found only in some of the polders along the coast of the Ger- 
man Ocean. The cultivation of land by the intervention of a 
bailiff or steward, so common in eastern Europe, is a rare 
exception in Belgium. 

The leases are, as a rule, very short — nine years at most ; very 
seldom indeed for so much as eighteen years. On the other hand, 
yearly tenancy and tenure-at-will are also very exceptional. All 
who devote attention to agriculture, even the agricultural societies, 
though consisting almost exclusively of landowners, admit that 
the leases are too short. The tenant is not encouraged to ; im- 
prove ; and if he does make improvements, he can hardly be 
said to reap the benefit of them. The landlords will not grant 
longer leases, because they want, in the first place, to keep a hold 
upon their tenants ; and secondly, to raise the rents when the 
leases expire. It may be said that throughout Belgium such 
increases of rent take place regularly and periodically. 

The table on the next page gives an idea of this continuous 
increase of rents since 1830. 

Since 1856, rents have risen even more in proportion than 
during the preceding period. It may thus be affirmed that, 
since 1830, the value of land and the rents have doubled. This 
is a further proof of the proposition so clearly set forth by 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 45/ 



Provinces 



Antwerp 

Brabant ...... 

Flanders, West . . . 
Flanders, East .... 

Hainaut 

Liege 

Limbourg 

Luxembourg . . . . 

Namur 

Average of kingdom 



Increase of Rents from 



1830 to 
1835 



Per cent 
7.06 
7.62 

8.10 

13.96 

8.94 

7-5° 
10.28 

5-14 

9.87 



1835 to 

1840 



Per cent 
I0.22 

12.48 

6-93 
n-39 
15.58 
14.72 
13.02 

7-73 
15-35 



1840 to 

1846 



Per cent 
6.32 

5-°5 
5.20 

2.85 
7.48 
8. 11 
1.90 
4.17 
7.66 



1846 to 

1850 



Per cent 

8-33 
2.41 

4-05 

1.05 
7.41 

3-°3 
10.00 



[850 to 

1856 



Per cent 
I5-38 
I7-65 
16.90 
21.84 
14.58 
16.09 
17.OO 
I4.7I 
16.36 



Rent per Hectare 



[830 



Fr. c. 

47-5° 
66.27 
60.00 
71.40 
69.79 

62.35 
46.80 
28.78 
36-77 



[856 



Fr. 

75 
100 

83 
106 
no 
101 

62 

39 
64 



Fr. 
92 

102 
130 

135 

124 

90 

44 
77 



9.10 



2.74 



5-90 



2.94 



7.14 



57-25 



102 



Mr. Mill, that while the rate of profit and of interest has a down- 
ward tendency in a progressing community, rent, on the contrary, 
tends to rise incessantly. Thus the landowners actually reap all 
the benefit resulting from the progress made by the entire com- 
munity in various directions. Part of this progressive increase 
in rent may be traced to improvements made by the farmers 
in the cultivation of the soil. By raising the rent the landlord 
lays hold for himself of this advance in the value of the land 
produced by those who cultivate it. 

The increase of the revenue the landlord derives from his land 
is not the result of improvements executed by himself ; and the 
fact adverted to is a general one, which may be met with every- 
where. In whatever cases landlords have actually made improve- 
ments, they have got the interest of the outlay in the shape of 
an additional augmentation of their revenue. 

For these reasons, I think that the increase of rent, being due 
to the progress of society at large, and not to the exertions of 
the landowners, ought not in justice to benefit the latter alone. 
It would be but fair to divide this benefit. For a portion of it 
the tenant should come in ; and this he would get if he had a 
longer lease. Another part of it should fall to the share of the 
community at large, in the shape of an increase of the land tax. 

At the present day the land tax {impot fonder) in Belgium 
amounts to about 19,000,000 francs (,£760,000). It ought to 



458 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

increase in some proportion to the augmentation of rent, so, 
however, as not to affect the revenue, which is the reward of im- 
provements ; but some portion of that general advance of rents, 
which is the result of the general progress of the country, ought 
to be laid under contribution. 

All this applies with equal force to the British Isles, but sub- 
ject to some important restrictions, because, in the first place, 
English and Irish landlords do not put on the screw of a con- 
tinual increase of rent with anything like the harshness habitual 
with Belgian landowners. In the second place, the local rates in 
England are high, and are rising progressively. Thirdly, rents 
have been raised in England much less in proportion than they 
are in Belgium. 

Nevertheless, as regards the increase of rent, the land system 
of Belgium is not so bad as that of England. In both countries 
part of the clear profit of civilisation is sublimated, so to speak, 
and deposited in the shape of increased rent in the landlord's 
exchequer, even though he be an absentee or a do-nothing. But 
where there are a great many landowners a large proportion of 
its inhabitants must come in - for a share in the increased rent. 
If, on the contrary, they are few in number, they monopolise 
the whole of the social benefit. In the former case the working 
of the economic law of increasing rent will be harsher than in 
the latter ; yet it will be acquiesced in when many benefit by it, 
while it must sooner or later arouse opposition where it tends to 
enrich a few families only. The system of rack-renting, which is 
so much censured in England, is generally practised in Flanders ; 
nevertheless, the tenant bears with it in all meekness, notwith- 
standing the sufferings it entails on him. In the United King- 
dom the landlord would scruple to shear his tenants as they 
are shorn in Flanders, yet he does not escape reproach ; and 
this is easily explained by the fact that for one landowner in 
England there are a hundred in Flanders. Still, on the whole, 
the system of tenure of land in Flanders is anything but worthy 
of imitation. There are too many tenant-farmers and too few 
peasant-proprietors ; the leases are excessively short and the 
rents excessively high. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 459 

Arthur Young has said : l * Give a farmer a nine years' lease of 
a garden and he will make a desert of it." It is to the honour of 
the small farmers of Flanders, and of la petite culture, that they 
have falsified this maxim. 

Among the various systems of tenure of land in the Belgian 
and Dutch Low Countries, there is none more interesting to the 
student of agriculture than the Beklem-regt, in the province of 
Groningen. This is a kind of hereditary lease, something like 
fixity of tenure. The landlord can never raise the tenant's annual 
rent. The tenant, on the contrary (called the Beklemde-meyer), 
may bequeath his right of occupation, dispose of it, mortgage it, 
provided only he does not diminish the value of the land. The 
Beklem-regt is indivisible, and can be held only by one person. 
Whenever it changes hands the landlord is entitled to a fee called 
propinen, which amounts to one or two years' rent, and is fixed 
beforehand. This system dates from the Middle Ages, and is 
still constantly practised in Groningen, even on lands recently 
reclaimed, on polders, and on lands put in cultivation in the 
turf -bog region. It arises in the following manner : Some land- 
owners being in want of money, and not wishing to mortgage 
their lands, give hereditary leases of them for a sum of money, 
thus remaining nominally proprietors ; they never part with the 
fee-simple. Moreover, when the land is sold, the fee-simple and 
the Beklem-regt are disposed of separately, and a higher price is 
thus realised. 

All Dutch economists are alive to the advantages of the 
Beklem-regt, of which the principal ones are as follows : 

1st. It gives the tenant absolute security for the future, thus 
encouraging him to make improvements. 

2nd. The tenant purchasing the right of occupation has less to 
pay for it than he would for the fee-simple, and yet acquires the 
same security. The higher the rent, the less money he pays. In 
Ireland, on the contrary, no real right is obtained by purchas- 
ing the goodwill or tenant right, and the new tenant must pay 
the same rent as others. In Groningen an hereditary right of 
occupation is acquired, and the rent to be paid is moderate and 
invariable. 



460 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

3rd. The Beklem-regt, being indivisible, prevents compulsory 
or injurious subdivision. If the division is beneficial, the landlord 
consents to it in consideration of a share in the profits to be 
gained by it. 

4th. The Beklem-regt precludes the immoderate increase of the 
population, because, on the one hand, it limits the number of farms, 
and, on the other, because the farmer himself being in good circum- 
stances, his sons are not likely to allow themselves to fall into distress. 

5 th. By this mode of tenure a number of well-to-do quasi- 
proprietors are made to reside in the country, cultivating the land 
with capital and science, whereas if the landlords were to hold the 
land themselves, they would go and live in the towns, and let their 
estates to tenants at ruinous rents. 

Thus instead of tenants with the fear of losing their holding's 
always before their eyes, and ground down by ever-increasing 
rents, this system, derived from the Middle Ages, has created a 
class of semi-proprietors, independent, proud, simple, but withal 
eager for enlightenment, appreciating the advantages of education, 
practising husbandry not by blind routine and as a mean occupa- 
tion, but as a noble profession by which they acquire wealth, 
influence, and the consideration of their fellow-men ; a class ready 
to submit to any sacrifice to drain their lands, improve their farm- 
buildings and implements, and looking for their well-being to their 
own energy and foresight alone. 

Systems of tenure of land similar to the Beklem-regt used to 
exist in the Channel Islands and in Brittany by the name of 
domaine congeable, in Lombardy by the name of contratto di 
livello, and in Portugal by that of aforamento. 1 As long as the 
hereditary tenants cultivate the land for themselves, the Beklem- 
regt is attended only with beneficial effects ; but as soon as they 
sub-let it becomes subject to the drawbacks of common leases, 
with the difference that in that case the sub-tenant must pay a 
double rent — viz., the fixed one to the landlord, and a variable 
one to the hereditary tenant. 

Could the goodwill in Ireland be converted into Beklem-regt or 
aforamento, the country might perhaps be saved by it. But then 

1 See the note on aforamento at the end of original essay. — Ed. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 461 

the Irish peasants would, in the first place, have to respect the 
indivisibility of their leaseholds and of the farms for which these 
are granted. Moreover, they would have to pay to the landlords 
themselves, not to the outgoing tenants, the price of the hereditary 
leases for which they would come in. One must add, however, 
that it would in all probability be very difficult to make them 
understand and appreciate this mode of tenure. Even in the 
provinces adjoining Groningen, where the wholesome effects of 
this system are seen and appreciated, it is not adopted. 

Lawyers, inspired with the ideas of uniformity and simplifica- 
tion of the French Revolution, are, moreover, opposed to a system 
which formerly used to prevail in a great part of Europe. It has 
likewise disappeared in many countries by degenerating from its 
original form, or by reason of being coupled with improper regu- 
lations. In Lombardy the contratto di livello, enforcing certain 
payments in kind, prevented the hereditary farmer from growing 
such crops as he liked, and thus formed an obstacle to progress 
in husbandry. Instead of trying to do away with this system, it 
should be preserved, and even brought into general use, with 
improvements in its form. 

The Flemish Pachters-regt, or farmer's right, consists in the 
liability of the incoming tenant to pay the outgoing one for the 
value of the straw and manure on the land, besides the manure 
in stock, and the manure and crops on the ground ; being a 
compensation for unexhausted improvements, but given on a 
more systematic plan than in England. 

The existence of this custom in Flanders dates as far back as 
the Middle Ages, which is another instance of the progress the 
country had achieved, even in those remote days. At present 
the Pachters-regt varies according to districts, and the differences 
seem to coincide with the areas occupied of old by the various 
German tribes. In the neighbourhood of Ypres and Courtrai 
not more than one-third of the value of the manure from which 
a crop has already been raised is given ; near Ghent the indem- 
nity amounts to one-half of that value ; and in the Waes country 
a fixed rate of twenty-one francs is paid per hectare for the 
manure sunk in the two foregoing years. The total amount of 



462 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

compensation varies according to the state of cultivation of the 
land and the time of taking possession of it. 

In the southern districts, where the leases commence in Octo- 
ber, the Pachters-regt applies only to the half-exhausted manure 
and the manure kept in tanks, and does not exceed 70 or 
80 francs per hectare on an average ; whilst in the neighbour- 
hood of Ghent, where the farmers take possession at Christmas 
or on the 1st of March, the indemnity is paid for the crops in 
the ground as well as the manure, and amounts to 400 or 
500 francs for every hectare sown with corn {emblave)} 

In Mr. Caird's V Letters on English Agriculture " it is stated 
that in the counties of Surrey and Essex an inventory is usually 
drawn up, similar to the Flemish prizy, which is an inventory 
of unexhausted improvements. However, Mr. Caird is not very 
much in favour of a custom which, in his opinion, is attended 
with the following two drawbacks : 

1st. Costly valuations, lawsuits, and law expenses. 

2nd. The compensation for the inventory exhausts the resources 
of the incoming tenant. 

Neither of these two drawbacks exists in Flanders, and neither 
ought to exist in England. The inventory is drawn up by ex- 
perts, and frequently by the notary of the locality, at a trifling 
expense, and litigious proceedings hardly ever arise from this. 
Where the crop in the ground is to be valued, as in the neigh- 
bourhood of Ghent, the operation is indeed attended with some 
difficulties ; but where the new-comer takes possession in October, 
as in the environs of Courtrai, nothing need be valued except 
the farmyard manure (of which the cubic volume may be readily 
ascertained) and the half-exhausted manure ; and the inventory 
is taken with the greatest facility. 

As regards the alleged diminution of the incoming tenant's 
resources, this charge is groundless ; on the contrary, the prizy 
increases his capital. He pays for manure on the spot, which he 

1 In an interesting manual for valuers of indemnities to be paid to outgoing 
tenants, entitled " Het Pachters-regt ; door L. Delarue en van Bockel," I find 
valuations of compensations for lands sown with barley, colza, and wheat, amount- 
ing to from 400 to 500 francs per hectare ; of which upwards of 300 francs are 
for manure. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 463 

would otherwise have to procure from some remote quarter. It 
is owing to the prizy that the outgoing farmer does not neglect, 
the land even in the last year of his tenure, and the incoming 
tenant finds it in perfect condition, instead of its being exhausted 
and overgrown with weeds. No outlay is less regretted by the 
Flemish farmer than the one for the inventory. His saying is, 
Hoe hooger hoe beter, " the higher the better." 1 

In Flanders all agricultural authorities agree that the Pachters- 
regt is indispensable to good culture. They go so far as to de- 
mand, in the interest of rural economy, that the local customs 
relative to this right be systematised and regulated by law. In 
fact, the land in Flanders is naturally so excessively poor that if 
the outgoing tenant neglects it during the last two years of his 
occupation, the farm is ruined, and a great expenditure becomes 
necessary to put it into its proper condition again. 

The Flemish Pachters-regt deserves to be introduced every- 
where for the following reasons : 

1. It is equitable, compensating, as it does, the farmer for his 
improvements and good cultivation. 

2. It prevents the exhaustion of the land during the last two 
or three years of the lease. 

3. It furnishes the incoming farmer with manure, which it 
is his interest to have. Both the Flemish and the Chinese prop- 
erly think that there is no better investment to be made than 
in manure. 

Those who cultivate the soil are either landowners, tenants, or 
labourers. Let us now examine the condition of each of these 
three classes in Flanders. 

If the cultivator of the land is the owner of it at the same time, 
his condition is a happy one in Belgium, as everywhere else, 
unless the plot he holds is insufficient to support him, in which 
case he has to eke out his existence by becoming also a tenant or 
labourer. But as a rule the peasant-proprietor is well off. In the 
first place, he may consume the entire produce of his land, which 
being very large, especially in Flanders, his essential wants are 

1 I need hardly add that nothing of all this applies to the Ulster tenant right 
as described by Lord Dufferin on " Irish Tenure," p. 116. 



464 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

amply satisfied ; secondly, he is independent, having no appre- 
hensions for the future ; he need not fear being ejected from his 
farm, or having to pay more, in proportion as he improves the 
land by his labour. 

Yet the mode of living of the little landowner, who works as a 
peasant, differs very little from that of the tenant-farmer. His 
food is about the same, except that he eats bacon more frequently, 
killing a pig or two for his own use, and that he drinks more beer. 
His clothes, habits, and dwelling also resemble those of the other 
class, save that they denote rather easier circumstances. He lays 
money by to purchase land and give his farm a better outline ; 
and it is owing to the competition of peasant-proprietors in the 
land-market that the value of real property is rising so rapidly. 

What remains to be desired is not that the peasant-proprietor 
should add to or refine his wants, for the progress of civilisation 
is not co-extensive with that of epicureanism, 1 but that he should 
pay more attention to his own intellectual improvement, and to 
this a portion of his annual savings might very well be devoted. 

The situation of the small Flemish tenant-farmers is, it must be 
owned, rather a sad one. Owing to the shortness of their leases, 
they are incessantly exposed to having their rents raised or their 
farms taken from them. Enjoying no security as to the future, 
they live in perpetual anxiety. So much does this fear of having 
their rents raised tell upon their minds, that they are afraid to 
answer any question about farming, fancying that an increase of 
rent would be the inevitable consequence. 

Rack-rents leave the small farmer barely enough to subsist on. 
I do not think his working capital returns three per cent, and he 
works himself like a labourer. However, he is always properly 
clothed, and on Sundays he dresses just like a boitrgeois. His 
wife and daughters, who work barefooted during the week, are 
stylishly dressed on Sunday, wearing crinolines, ornaments, and 
flowers in their hair. 

1 In my opinion it is a great mistake to consider the refinement of wants and 
luxury in private life as a criterion of civilisation. In the best days of ancient 
Greece, private comfort was all but unknown. In ancient India and Judaea the 
men whose minds conceived the ideas on which our moral life is based lived in 
quite a primitive way. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 465 

It ought to be added that suitable farm-buildings are almost 
always erected by the landlord, and remarkably well kept by the 
tenant ; this is quite a traditional custom in Flanders, and has 
been so for many ages. Every one is alive to and respects the 
requirements of good farming. The properties cultivated by the 
proprietors themselves, although in a minority, form a kind of 
model or type, and every one does his best to imitate them. They 
are looked upon as standards from which the peasants would be 
ashamed to depart very far. Their influence in this respect has 
been very forcibly pointed out by Mr. Cliffe Leslie in a remark- 
able article on "The Farms and Peasantry of Belgium," 1 in 
which he says : "As Falstaff could boast of being not only witty 
himself, but the cause of wit in other men, the peasant-proprietor 
may boast that he is not only a good farmer himself, but the cause 
of good farming in other men." 

Nothing gives a more charming idea of country life than the 
little farmhouses of Flanders, especially in the Pays de Waes. 
With an orchard in front, where the cows graze in the shadow of 
the apple-trees, surrounded by well-kept hedges, the walls white- 
washed, doors and window-frames painted in green, flowers be- 
hind the windows, the most perfect order everywhere, no manure 
lying about, the whole presents an appearance of neatness, and 
even of ease and comfort. 

The reason why these small farmers are ground down by rack- 
rents is that there are too many of them. On 100 hectares, or 1 
square kilometre (.386 square mile), there are in West Flanders 
200, in East Flanders 270 inhabitants, against 76 in France, and 
136 in Lombardy. The peasants of Flanders unfortunately will 
not leave their own province, and their intense competition for 
farms raises the rents in a manner ruinous to themselves. 

Above the small farmers there is a class of small proprietors, 
who profit without scruple by this competition. Having just 
enough to support themselves, they do not trouble themselves 
about the condition of the farmer or anything else, being anxious 
to maintain "their position in the world," as they term it. 

1 See Fraser^s Magazine of December, 1867, and T. Cliffe Leslie's valuable 
book, " Land Systems in Ireland, England, and the Continent." 



466 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

No parallel can be drawn between the Belgian and the English 
landowner. The latter, I believe, acts upon considerations un- 
known on the Continent, and no inference can therefore be drawn 
from so exceptional a case. Not that the English landlord is 
intus et in cute better than other men ; but he is subject to a 
higher public opinion, and being a much wealthier man, he is 
not tempted to screw the last farthing out of his tenant. Hence 
the condition of the English tenant-farmer is a happier one than 
that of the Flemish. 

As a rule, peasant property is an excellent thing wherever the 
proprietor is himself the cultivator ; but where it exists side by 
side with leasehold farming in an over-populated country, the 
tenant-farmer is placed in a worse condition than if the estates 
were large. But it is most important to bear in mind, in com- 
paring the condition of the agricultural population in Flanders 
and England, that the small Flemish farmer who cultivates his 
land with his own hands corresponds, not to the English tenant- 
farmer, but to the English farm-labourer. Now our small farmer, 
though hardly better fed than the English agricultural labourer, 
has a decided advantage over the latter ; he doubtless has the 
cares and responsibility his superior position entails, but on the 
other hand he acquires from it habits of providence and self- 
control, and the exercise of his intellectual faculties. 

Let us next glance at the condition of the agricultural labourer 
in Flanders. His wages are very low, ranging from I franc 10 
centimes to I franc 50 centimes per day, without board. In the 
Walloon country, in which are all the large centres of industry, 
the wages are about double of this, owing to the mines and manu- 
factories competing with the land in the labour-market. Some 
facts connected with this are almost incredible. In the environs 
of Liege, an agricultural labourer earns 2I francs a day, while 
near Hasselt, at a distance of no more than four leagues, he 
earns but 1 franc ; the country is Flemish, and he is prevented 
by the difference of language from going to a Walloon district, 
in which he might earn much higher pay. 

For breakfast the Flemish labourer has bread and butter, with 
chicory coffee and milk ; for dinner, potatoes, vegetables, and 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 467 

bread ; at 4 p.m., bread and butter again, and for supper the same 
fare as for dinner ; very seldom a little bacon, and as for butchers' 
meat — four or five times in a year. Those who live with the 
farmers" get pork more frequently. 

On the other hand, the farm-labourer is generally well housed. 
For himself and his family he always has a house, with at least 
two, more frequently four, rooms, generally kept in good condi- 
tion, and having an acre or half an acre of land belonging to it, 
where the man grows vegetables, potatoes, and rye ; and there is, 
besides, a goat which gives milk to the household. 

NUMBER OF FAMILIES FOR EVERY 100 HOUSES IN THE RURAL 

DISTRICTS OF 



1846 



1856 



Flanders, West 
Flanders, East . . 
The entire kingdom 



103 
104 
104 



101 
102 
104 



Thus the number of houses in Flanders has increased as 
compared with the rural population, who have by this means 
found better accommodation. 

No remarks need be made on the beneficial effects of a good 
home on a man's morality and self-respect. This applies to the 
country as well as to towns, and accounts for the fact that the 
Flemish population, badly fed and little educated as it is, yet 
presents all the outward appearance of well-being and civilisation. 

It may be affirmed that in normal years no pauperism is to be 
found in the rural districts of Flanders, and beggars are very 
rare. The labourers and small artisans live poorly ; yet having 
nearly all of them a little plot of land to work, they are at any 
rate kept from starving. At the time machinery supplanted hand- 
spinning, a severe crisis took place indeed ; but the last traces of 
it have now disappeared. 

A stranger visiting Flanders should guard against rashly 
drawing unfavourable inferences from certain facts arising from 
custom. A Walloon, for instance, seeing women working in the 



468 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

fields barefooted, is apt to consider it as a proof of extreme 
destitution. He is, however, in error — it is the custom of the 
country. A well-to-do farmer's daughters, who are stylishly 
dressed on Sundays, will work barefooted during the week. The 
same observation applies to the rye-bread, which the country 
people eat, as a rule, simply because they have done so for cen- 
turies, although they can often afford to eat wheaten bread ; 
which, by the way, is coming into more general use at present. 

In my work on the rural economy of Belgium I made some 
reflections on the indifferent condition of the Flemish peasants, 
from which inferences adverse to peasant proprietorship have 
been drawn. These conclusions are erroneous. The evil arises 
from the fact that there are too few small proprietors and too 
many small tenants among the peasantry of Flanders. 

If you want to find a district in Belgium where the peasants 
are well off, you must go to Lower Luxembourg. There the land 
is divided out into a multitude of peasant properties, almost the 
whole of which are cultivated by the owners themselves. Each 
of these manages his own farm, and under the shadow of his 
fruit-trees enjoys in security what he earns by the sweat of 
his brow. This is a kind of rural opulence, due not to the 
possession of large capitals, but to the abundance of rural prod- 
uce. No one is rich enough to live in idleness ; none so poor as 
to suffer from want. The peasant there is also more enlightened 
than in Flanders, and more independent. The situation is nearly 
the same as that of the Canton of Grisons, in Switzerland. 

A few figures will indicate the contrast between Flanders and 
Luxembourg ; in each of the two provinces I shall select a 
normal district. 

Flanders. District of St. Nicholas, in the Pays de Waes. 
Farm-labourer's wages, I franc 10 centimes per day. 

.,••'* , , f by owners, 6 c c6 hectares 
Area of land worked^ .' \o i 

Lby tenants, 31,689 hectares 

Luxembourg. Bouillon and Paliseul district. Farm-labourer's 
wages, 2 francs per day. 

A r , ■, 1 1 f by owners, 10, 690 hectares 

Area of land worked < , ' , 

[.by tenants, 1563 hectares 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 469 

Thus in Lower Luxembourg the labourer's wages are double 
what they are in Flanders, although most, articles of food, espe- 
cially meat and potatoes, are cheaper in the former province. 

The farmers of Holland lead a comfortable, well-to-do, and 
cheerful life. They are well housed and excellently clothed. 
They have chinaware and plate on their sideboards, tons of gold 
at their notaries', public securities in their safes, and in their 
stables excellent horses. Their wives are bedecked with splendid 
corals and gold. They do not work themselves to death. On 
the ice in winter, at the kermesses in summer, they enjoy them- 
selves with the zest of men whose minds are free from care. 

The Belgian farmer, we have shown, is neither as rich as his 
Dutch neighbour, nor can he enjoy himself in the same way. 

One reason is that in Holland the townspeople have at all 
times invested their savings in public securities, and generally 
left landed property alone, which has thus remained entirely in 
the hands of the peasants. In Belgium, on the contrary, the 
nobility have retained large landed property, and capitalists have 
eagerly bought estates. Hence a good number of the peasants 
have become mere tenants. 

To meet with the ideal of rural life, you must look for it in 
Groningen or in Upper Bavaria. 

Pliny's saying, Latifundia perdidere Italiam, has sounded like 
a warning voice across centuries. The latifundia of the Roman 
aristocracy first devoured the small estates, then the small propri- 
etors, and, when the Barbarians made their appearance, the 
empire had become a solitude. 

The estados of the grandees of Spain have also destroyed 
the small landowners, whose place has been taken by bandits, 
smugglers, beggars, and monks. 

Tiberius Gracchus was the only Roman who understood the 
economic situation of his country. Had the laws proposed by 
him been adopted, the decline of the Republic might perhaps 
have been prevented. 

It is the glory of England to have remained free from the 
consequences usually attending the large-property system. Great 
Britain possesses a class of landowners and tenants alive to the 



470 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

requirements of agriculture ; and her gigantic commerce has pro- 
vided employment for the small freeholders whose lands have 
been swallowed up. But on the Continent the case is vastly 
different ; and the reason of this is to be found in the facts 
noticed with reference to Belgium. 

Here large farms are, as a rule, not so well cultivated as small 
ones, and this is easily accounted for. To work a farm of 
200 hectares with as much capital as Flemish small farmers do, 
100,000 francs (^£4,000) would be required. Now, a man who 
commands such a sum will not become a farmer ; he will either 
go and live in a town, become a functionary, or employ his 
capital in business ; hence the working capital of large farms is, 
as a rule, insufficient, and therefore the returns from these are 
smaller, and they let at less rent. Thus an additional stimulus is 
given to subdivision. 

This being the case in Belgium, it must a fortiori be so in 
'countries in which husbandry is more behindhand. In eastern 
Europe — e.g., in Hungary, Poland, and Prussia — large estates 
are farmed by the proprietors themselves, in the absence of 
tenants of sufficient capital. 

Even in England, would not the land be more carefully culti- 
vated were there a number of peasant proprietors ? x and, suppos- 
ing there were 200,000 small farmers more than there are now, 
might there not be 500,000 fewer paupers less to be supported ? 
I only put the question, not feeling myself competent to decide it. 

Free trade in land. I borrow this title from an interesting 
work published by Mr. W. Fowler, M.P. In our western world 
it seems to me necessary that there should be no obstacle to land 
changing hands, in order that it may be distributed in conformity 
with the laws of political economy, and become the property of 
those who can turn it to the best account. 

To this end, the first requisite is that all those restrictions 
should be done away with by which landed property is rendered 
immovable in the possession of certain families ; for example, 
primogeniture, entails, etc. In the second place, every one ought 

1 See the excellent article on the " Channel Islands," by M. Zincke, in the 
Fortnightly Review., January i, 1876. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 471 

to be able to purchase a lot of land without heavy expenses, and 
with perfect security. If the purchase of an estate involves law- 
suits, risks of title, or considerable costs, then the rich only can 
indulge in the luxury. The continuance anywhere of so intolerable 
a state of things can only be accounted for by the fact that 
it is the interest of lawyers and of the wealthy to maintain it ; 
the former for the sake of the legal business it creates, the latter 
because it keeps the land market to themselves. 

As regards the transfer of land and the law of mortgage, 
Belgium may be considered a model country. The following is a 
synopsis of the laws in force in this respect : 

Since the passing of the act of December 16, 1852, modify- 
ing the then existing law, the sale of land takes place by a deed 
executed before a notary, or else by one under a private seal 
recognised in law. Deeds under private seal used to give rise to 
irregularities, and to serious dangers whenever the authenticity 
of the signature was contested. By the following compulsory 
forms of law the purchaser obtains perfect security with regard 
to mortgages. His notary is bound to obtain a certificate (/tat 
ne'gatif) from the registrar, or keeper (conservateur), of mort- 
gages, showing that there are no outstanding charges against 
either the seller or the former owners. The notary is personally 
responsible for neglect to take this precaution, and the registrar 
of mortgages would also be liable to an action for damages were 
he to omit to give notice of any incumbrances. If there be any 
incumbrances of this kind, they may be deducted from the selling 
price, and in that case the purchaser assumes the seller's liability ; 
or else the purchaser may pay off the creditor, who then gives 
him a discharge of the debt. 

The law of 185 1 has done away entirely with hypotheques 
tacites on legates. All unregistered mortgages are invalid against 
the purchasers of an estate. 

Along with the certificate against incumbrances an etat des 
mutations must be obtained by the notary ; i.e., a statement of 
all the changes of hands the property has undergone since a 
fixed date prior to the sale, and establishing the title of the 
vendor. The notary must, moreover, take the precaution to obtain 



472 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

an extract from the matrice cadastrale, or otherwise a copy of 
the official survey. Notice is given of every transfer of landed 
property to the administrateur dzc cadastre by the offices of reg- 
istration and succession duties, as well as by his own surveyors, 
who make periodical circuits, and ascertain, de visu, what modi- 
fications the land has undergone. A good surveyor knows the 
"parcels" of his district just as well as a shepherd does his sheep. 

The notary draws up the deed of sale, which is signed by the 
parties, two witnesses, and himself. The minute or original of 
the deed is brought to the office of the registrar (receveur de 
r enre'gistrement), who puts an abstract, or summary, of it on his 
register. By this formality the purchase and its date are fully 
authenticated; but the primary object of it is to secure the gov- 
ernment duty, which amounts to 4 per cent, plus 30 centimes 
additionnels, altogether to 5 francs 20 centimes per cent of the 
selling price. 

After this the deed undergoes transcription. It is then no 
longer the minute that is lodged with the registrar of mortgages, 
but a duplicate duly executed. The registrar transcribes it in 
full; this transcription establishes the legal transfer of the prop- 
erty as far as third parties are concerned. Under the Code Civil, 
transcription was not required to validate a transfer. Under the 
present law the purchaser who has been the first to have his 
deed transcribed is the legal proprietor. The transcription is 
subject to a duty of 1 franc 30 centimes per cent, with some 
centimes additionnels. The notary's fees vary according to the 
value of the property transferred. 

The essential features of the process may be summed up as 
follows : 

1st. A deed of transfer is executed before a public officer (the 
notary), who is responsible for its proper legal form. The orig- 
inal remains in the notary's hands, and forms the title-deed ; and 
thus individuals are secured against the loss of their title. 

2nd. This document is transcribed on a public register, with 
a statement of the mortgages, if any, on the estate transferred. 
An extract from this register may be had for a few francs, and 
thus any one may readily ascertain to whom an estate belongs, 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 473 

by what right it does so, and what incumbrances, if any, there 
are on it ; and all this without any uncertainty or obscurity. 

3rd. The official survey contains a plan of each township 
{commune), with the parcels, their areas, annual values, and pe- 
culiarities marked on it ; and in every commune in the kingdom 
there is to be found a copy of the plan of its territory, which 
may be referred to by the inhabitants, and from which they may 
claim an extract. 

In Belgium the transfer duties (which are very high — about 
seven per cent of the selling price) are levied on the property 
sold ; but this tax is a bad one, impeding free trade in land. In 
Prussia, where the same legislation exists, the tax amounts to no 
more than one and a half per cent, and the notary's fees are 
very low. If the government requires the amount of the tax, it 
had better impose it on land directly, by increasing the land tax. 
It falls on the owners of land in either case, but in the latter 
there would be the compensatory advantages arising from unim- 
peded sale of their land. In other respects the system is perfect. 
The cadastre, or official survey, ascertains the areas, boundaries, 
and properties of estates ; the notary puts the deed of transfer 
into its proper legal shape, and the transcription on a public 
register fixes the date of the transfer and publishes it to the 
world. There is, in short, absolute authenticity combined with 
full publicity, being just the two things needful. It is the duty 
of the State to make these formalities compulsory, a public and 
not merely a private interest being at stake. 

It is of the highest public interest, in the first place, that 
landed property should easily get into those hands by which it 
can be turned to the best account ; secondly, that the title to 
property in land should be secure and incontestable ; and, thirdly, 
that there should be no legal obstacles to the subdivision of land 
when the natural economy tends to it, so that the number of 
small landowners should not be artificially reduced by imperfec- 
tion in the law. 

The Belgian system is only an improvement on that of the 
French law, which has been successively adopted by almost all 
Continental countries, on account of its conspicuous usefulness. 



474 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

As long as England does not introduce security, publicity, 
facility of exchange (in fine, free trade) into everything connected 
with property in land, there will ever be an insuperable obstacle 
to the establishment of an agrarian system in keeping with the 
wants of modern society. A reform in this particular branch of 
English law is, in my opinion, the most urgent of all. 

We have seen that much larger gross returns are everywhere 
obtained from the land by small than by large farming. This is 
certainly a great, but not the greatest, boon accruing from it. 

The larger the number of landowners is in a country, the more 
free and independent citizens there are interested in the main- 
tenance of public order. Property is the essential complement of 
liberty. Without property man is not truly free. Whatever rights 
the political constitution may confer upon him, so long as he is a 
tenant he remains a dependent being. A free man politically, he 
is socially but a bondsman. 

In Belgium most tenant-farmers enjoy both the municipal and 
parliamentary franchise. But this right, so far from raising them 
in the social scale, is but a source of mortification and humiliation 
to them, for they are forced to vote according to the dictate of the 
landlord, instead of following the dictates of their own inclinations 
and convictions. How can they feel any attachment to a consti- 
tution which, in conferring a new right, really at the same time 
rivets a new chain on them ? The electoral franchise is but a 
mockery and a snare to the cultivator without either proprietorship 
or a long lease. 

It may be thought a matter for surprise that, in Flanders, 
feelings hostile to social order nevertheless do not manifest them- 
selves, and that agrarian outrages are never perpetrated as in 
Ireland, although I think it certain that, in consequence of exces- 
sive competitions, the Flemish farmer is much more ground down 
by his landlord than the Irish tenant. The fact that in Flanders, 
as in all countries in which landed property is distributed among 
a large number of owners, the ideas called socialist 1 in the bad 

1 1 think it is to be regretted that a disparaging meaning should attach to this 
word. Are not those who devote themselves to social science, socialists? When, 
in 1848, Proudhon was asked in the Committee of Inquiry, " What is socialism ? " 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 475 

sense of the word do not obtain influence, is to be accounted 
for as follows : 

The Flemish tenant, although ground down by the constant 
rise of rents, lives among his equals, peasants like himself who 
have tenants whom they use just as the large landowner does his. 
His father, his brother, perhaps the man himself, possesses some- 
thing like an acre of land, which he lets at as high a rent as he 
can get. In the public-house peasant proprietors will boast of the 
high rents they get for their lands, just as they might boast of 
having sold their pigs or potatoes very dear. Letting at as high a 
rent as possible comes thus to seem to him to be quite a matter of 
course, and he never dreams of finding fault with either the land- 
owners as a class or with property in land. His mind is not likely 
to dwell on' the notion of a caste of domineering landlords, of 
"bloodthirsty tyrants," fattening on the sweat of impoverished 
tenants, and doing no work themselves ; for those who drive the 
hardest bargains are not the great landowners, but his own fellows. 
Thus the distribution of a number of small properties among the 
peasantry forms a kind of rampart and safeguard for the holders 
of large estates ; and peasant property may, without exaggeration, 
be called the lightning conductor that averts from society dangers 
which might otherwise lead to violent catastrophes. 

The concentration of land in large estates among a small num- 
ber of families is a sort of provocation of levelling legislative 
measures. The position of England, so enviable in many respects, 
seems to me to be in this respect full of danger for the future. 1 

The idea that all men are equal, placed at the head of all 
modern constitutions, and announced as an axiom throughout the 
world, is a new idea, the wholesome or baneful effects of which it 
is as yet impossible to foretell. The gospel proclaimed the equality 
and fraternity of all men : but it was to Christians a heavenly 
ideal, which they did not feel called upon to realise in this world. 
The Reformation, the United States Constitution, and the French 

he replied, " A general desire for improvement." " Then we are all of us 
socialists," remarked the chairman of the committee. 

1 See Mr. Cliffe Leslie's remarkable article on the w Land System of England," 
in Eraser's Magazine, February, 1867. 



476 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Revolution made of it a terrestrial ideal, of which the conse- 
quences must be logically followed up ; it only remains to be seen 
to what extent these consequences are to be carried. 

Tocqueville, in his book on Democracy, has admirably shown 
the effect of the equalitarian principle in politics ; but he has not 
pointed out with equal clearness the economic consequences it is 
likely to entail ; and these precisely absorb, at the present day, the 
attention of all those who can see and understand. 

The idea that all men have equal rights, though proclaimed 
everywhere, has not yet taken root enough to become a living and 
earnest conviction, resolute on action. To the upper strata of 
society this idea is like a vague threat hanging over them ; to the 
lower ones, like a light of hope in a distant future ; but being 
incessantly repeated at workmen's congresses and meetings, it is 
likely to diffuse itself through all classes, especially those whose 
interest it is to believe it to be true. 

Now suppose this idea universally and ardently embraced in a 
country in which the larger part of the land is in few hands, what 
sentiment is it likely to give birth to among the masses ? They 
will say : ■' If we are equal, how is it that a caste has perpetual 
possession of the land, and that we are perpetually doomed to 
support this caste by the produce of our labour ? Has God made 
the land only that a privileged few shall enjoy it ? Property is 
said to be the creature of labour. How is it, then, that we ever 
behold idleness and opulence on one side, and labour and destitu- 
tion on the other ? According to the laws of nature, he who works 
ought to reap the fruits of the earth, whilst he who lives in idleness 
should suffer hunger ; but does the perfection of social laws con- 
sist in keeping the drone in abundance and the bees in distress ? " 

I will not carry the argument further ; it will be readily under- 
stood. This was precisely the language held by the peasants who 
revolted in Germany when Luther spoke evangelical equality to 
the feudal society of the sixteenth century. These ideas may be 
drowned in blood, as they were on that occasion, as they were in 
France at the time of the Jacqueries ; but they will always revive 
and redouble the danger to society in countries where inequality 
appears like an institution conspicuous to the sight of all. 



THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 477 

It is a grave symptom of the emergency that the upper classes 
themselves no longer remain inaccessible to these ideas. A dis- 
tinguished member of the British Parliament, to whom I pointed 
out that certain measures proposed for Ireland looked remarkably 
like "confiscation," replied to me, "No doubt they do; but why 
should they not ? Is it not just that every one should have his 
turn ? " And really, if but a few are chosen to sit down to the 
feast of life, why should these guests be always the same ? This 
is in its crudity the idea which involuntarily rises in the mind. It 
is all very well for lawyers and economists to prove its absurdity, 
but one and the same argument produces a different effect on the 
man who is seated at table and the man who waits upon him ; 
what may seem absurd to the man who has the good side of the 
present regime may appear perfectly right and proper to him who 
has come in for the bad side. 

Travelling in Andalusia this year (1869), I lighted upon peas- 
ants harvesting the crops on the lands of Spanish grandees, which 
they had shared among themselves. "Why," said they, "should 
these large estates remain almost uncultivated in the hands of 
people who have neither created nor improved them, but are ruin- 
ing them by spending elsewhere the net produce they yield ? " I 
am convinced that were land more divided in those districts of 
Andalusia, where ideas of communion prevail at the present day, 
these would no longer find any adherents. In Belgium, socialism, 
though spreading among the working classes in manufacturing 
districts, does not penetrate into the country, where the small 
landowners block up its way. 

Therefore I think the following propositions may be laid down 
as self-evident truths : There are no measures more conserva- 
tive, or more conducive to the maintenance of order in society, 
than those which facilitate the acquirement of property in land by 
those who cultivate it ; there are none fraught with more danger 
for the future than those which concentrate the ownership of the 
soil in the hands of a small number of families. 



THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS IN DENMARK 
By Sir Rider Haggard 

(Reprinted from t,f Rural Denmark and its Lessons." Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 191 1) 

DURING my stay in Copenhagen I was most kindly con- 
ducted, as the guest of the Department of Agriculture, 
on a tour of investigation of the State small-holdings in the 
neighbourhood of Roskilde. We went by motor, as this was 
practically the only way to reach them, my companions being 
Mr. Valloe, Mr. Waage, and Mr. Niels Mortensen, himself a 
successful small-holder, who is the chairman of the Small- 
holdings Commission in that district. His Excellency the Minis- 
ter for Agriculture was coming also, but unfortunately a Council 
of State prevented him. This I much regret, as I should like 
to have heard more of his views upon the question generally. 

I now propose to give some account of the men I visited, 
as long experience in this kind of investigation has taught me 
that the only way to get at the truth as to the prosperity or 
otherwise of any branch of agriculture anywhere is to examine 
into it with one's own eyes. Learned treatises and the views 
of official gentlemen or experts are very well and a great help, 
but to understand things it is necessary to see the farms or 
holdings and the actual men who work them. 

Before I went to Denmark I was informed in one or two 
agricultural- papers that my visit was unnecessary, as everything 
about that country is quite well known already. It may be so, 
but at any rate it was not known to me, who had read every- 
thing on the subject upon which I could lay hands. From such 
reading I gathered, it is true, certain general ideas ; for in- 
stance, that co-operation was largely practised in Denmark, and 

478 



THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS IN DENMARK 479 

that there were many small-holders in the country where agri- 
culture was strangely prosperous. But in the light of the ex- 
perience that I gained in the course of my investigations on 
the spot, I can say honestly that until these were made I un- 
derstood little of the local conditions. Further, I had no idea 
of the great lessons that are to be learned from those condi- 
tions, which have, as a matter of fact, shown me the answers 
to problems that I have studied for years without being able to 
be sure of their solution. 

On these grounds, then, I determined that I would not leave 
the country until I had personally interviewed some of these 
State small-holders — had seen their land and heard their stories 
from their own lips. Here I may add that the men I visited on 
this particular journey, as Mr. Mortensen assured me in answer 
to my specific questions, were neither the worst nor the best of 
the State small-holders in that part of Denmark. They were, he 
said, a fair sample, selected for the most part because their hold- 
ings lay near the road and were therefore easy of access. 

The first holder whom I saw, a hard, sturdy-looking man of 
about fifty, was Mr. Ole Larsen of Sallov, by Gadstrup, who 
owns five tondeland, that is, about six acres and a half, which he 
bought in 1905 with the aid of a State loan of 4000 kroner (or 
^221 13s. 4d.), at a cost of 500 kroner (or about ^27 10s.) 
per tondeland — say ^25 the acre. He informed me that when 
he entered on the holding he possessed a capital of 1 1 00 
kroner (about £61), which he had saved as an agricultural 
labourer. Mr. Larsen is a man of standing in his way, being a 
member of the Parish Council. He has a wife, but no children. 
He built the house and buildings at a cost of 2400 kroner 
(^133), I believe largely by his own labour; indeed if it were 
otherwise, I am sure I do not know how he did it for the 
money. At the time of my visit he was engaged in putting up 
an excellent cart-shed with his own hands. 

His house was erected under the supervision of the Small- 
holdings Commission for the Roskilde district, to which all 
drawings and plans for such dwellings must be submitted. It is 
thatched, and comprises under one long roof the dwelling-place, 



480 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a store-room containing a chaff-cutter, and beyond this the cow- 
house and pigsty e. In the dwelling are two sitting-rooms, a 
kitchen at the back with a copper and stove, and as this couple 
have no children, one bedroom. If there were children the 
second sitting-room would be used as a sleeping chamber. 

The cow-house, which is good and suitable, has accommo- 
dation for four cows and one horse. In the piggery, that is 
roofed over, as is usual in Denmark, were a fine sow, ten grow- 
ing and four young pigs of Danish breed. Here I saw a new 
thing, a half-grown female pig with two well-developed teats 
hanging from its throat. I was told that this phenomenon was 
very rare, but does occasionally occur in the Danish breed, both 
with male and female animals. It seems that pigs have been 
known to suckle their young from these false teats. 

In addition to these pigs and sixty fowls, Mr. Larsen's stock 
consisted of four good red Danish cows, three of which stood 
blanketed in a field. These he said he had bought out of his 
private means. Also he had a horse, an aged but useful animal, 
lightly built though sufficiently strong for his land. It cost him 
300 kroner (^16 12 s. 6d.) The milk goes to a co-operative 
dairy which stands about half a mile away. In 1909 Mr. 
Larsen's cows produced 30,000 lb. Danish, which he sold for 
1200 kroner (£66 10s.), plus the value of the skim milk 
which was returned to him. Also in that year he sold pigs to 
the value of 2600 kroner (^144) and purchased cake and other 
feeding-stuffs at a cost of 2500 kroner (^138 10s.). He told 
me that during the previous two years, after paying his in- 
terest to the State, there had been "a bit over." As a matter of 
fact, in 1909 this "bit" amounted to a surplus of 800 kroner 
(^44 6s. 8d.). 

Mr. Mortensen, who heard this statement, added that he also 
had himself saved money 'out of a similar holding. 

Mr. Larsen said that he looked to his cows, pigs, and poultry 
for his income, as he sold no corn. The pigs, like the milk, went 
to a co-operative society, but the eggs he disposed of privately. 
He buys his artificial manure (superphosphates) and calf-cake 
through another co-operative society. Among his implements I 



THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS IN DENMARK 481 

saw a waggon that cost 170 kroner (£9 8 s. 6d.), a market-cart 
bought second-hand for 120 kroner (£6 13 s.), and a corn- 
dressing machine, besides a plough, a roller, and two sets of 
harrows, all designed to be drawn by one horse. He borrowed 
his liquid-manure apparatus from a neighbour. 

I inspected this article, which, in view of the considerable cost 
of such machines in England (my own came to about £22), 
deserves a few words of description, especially as all I saw in 
Denmark were of the same pattern. It consisted of a long 
coopered tub measuring about 9 feet by 3, which tubs can be 
purchased for 30 kroner (£1 13 s.). This is placed in one of the 
narrow-bottomed Danish waggons and pumped full of the fluid, 
which, by means of a simple sluice-door behind, it discharges in a 
copious stream on the land as the waggon is drawn forward. This 
stuff is applied much more liberally than our carts are designed to 
do. Mr. Larsen said that it is best used in spring and autumn and 
after rain. Even on this small-holding there is a good liquid- 
manure tank holding 96 cartloads of 140 litres to the load, and 
fitted with a proper pump. 

I went over Mr. Larsen 's land very carefully, being anxious to 
ascertain how it was managed. He called it good and heavy, but 
I should describe it as light. Indeed it must be light, since other- 
wise one rather slenderly built ' horse could not drag a plough 
through it. Near to the buildings were three small stacks — one 
of barley, one of barley and oats mixed, and one of oats. Beyond 
these was first a strip of very good swedes and beet, about an 
acre in all. Then came another strip from which a mixed crop of 
barley and oats had been taken. This was sown down for clover 
hay, and on it the blanketed cows were tethered. Next in succes- 
sion was plough-land already drilled with rye after oats and vetches, 
then mustard for cow food after rye, a patch of beet, and a barley 
stubble. All of these were clean and in good heart. The little 
farm is divided into eight portions of about three-quarters of an 
acre each, worked in the following rotation : (1) oats, peas, and 
vetches mixed for " stable food " ; (2) rye ; (3) roots ; (4) barley ; 
(5) roots ; (6) barley sown down with clover and mixed seeds ; 
(7 and 8) clover. 



482 . READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Mr. Larsen and his wife do all the work of the holding without 
assistance, but he does not undertake any outside labour. He told 
me that he gets on well and is perfectly satisfied, adding with 
emphasis that he much preferred his present position to that which 
he used to occupy as a labourer. Certainly he seemed to be pros- 
perous in a small way ; and as we sat down to partake of the lunch 
of coffee, beer, etc. which Mrs. Larsen had hospitably provided, 
the air of solid comfort about the place struck me very much. It 
was a little astonishing also to be warmly thanked by a man in 
this position for the pleasure that he said he had experienced in 
reading works of mine that do not deal with agriculture. I do not 
think that a foreign writer visiting a small-holder in England would 
be likely to meet with this particular surprise. In Denmark, how- 
ever, it is otherwise, for there among the peasant class he may find 
that he is as well or even better known than it is his fortune to be 
at home. The Danes are great readers of such fiction as appeals 
to them. 

Before I parted from Mr. Larsen I had a private conversation 
with him on the subject of State small-holders generally. He told 
me that in his opinion about half of these really succeed. One- 
third just get on, and the rest are unsuccessful. It was entirely a 
question of the man himself. If he were the right man in the 
right place, things would go we'll. If not, he would fail. He 
thought that the movement would spread, which he feared would 
cause the land to become too expensive. Thus he said that in this 
part of Seeland it used to be possible to buy ground at 500 
kroner (,£27 14s.) the tbndeland, whereas now it costs 700 
kroner (.£38 15 s. iod.). 

Leaving Mr. Larsen 's house, we proceeded to another State 
small-holding near by which belongs to Mr. Anders Andersen. 
Mr. Andersen was away from home working for somebody else, 
so we interviewed his wife. She told me that they came into 
occupation of the holding five years ago. It was bought with the 
house and implements, but without stock, for 6100 kroner (^338) 
by aid of a State loan. The former owner was also a small-holder, 
who could not get on, either because he was not hard-working or 
sufficiently intelligent. Mr. Andersen first saved a little as a 



THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS IN DENMARK 483 

labourer, then took up some land, and afterwards moved on to this 
holding, which is larger. 

His wife informed me that she liked the place, and that they 
were getting on fairly well. At the time of our visit, however, she 
was somewhat depressed, as two of their pigs were ill with cramp, 
which to them was a very serious matter. Their stock consisted of 
four cows, a calf, and five pigs ; but having no horse they were 
obliged to hire one for ploughing. She said sadly that they 
wanted a horse very much indeed, even if it were only an Iceland 
pony, such as many of these small-holders use. The harvest had 
been good, and they had three stacks of corn, also a nice piece of 
roots. 

Their house was smaller than Mr. Larsen's, consisting of two 
rooms, with a granary adjoining that could be turned into dwelling 
space if necessary. This they did not need at present, as they 
only had one small boy at home. There was a cow-house for four 
beasts, and the usual piggery. I asked if the drinking well were 
not somewhat too near these outbuildings, and was told that it had 
been cemented. When the same question was put to another 
small-holder, he replied he had not noticed that the water made 
the pigs ill ! 

My general impression was that these people were not quite so 
flourishing as the Larsens. It appeared, however, that they took 
over their land in very bad order. Also Mrs. Andersen was evi- 
dently much depressed by the sickness amongst her pigs. Still 
Mr. Mortensen thought that they would get on well, as the man 
was steady and reliable. 

Our next visit was to Mr. H. P. Nielsen of Tjaereby, a middle- 
aged and capable man with a lame foot, who owns five tondeland, 
which he bought with the aid of a State loan of 5000 kroner 
(£>277), at a cost of 600 kroner (^33 5 s.) per tondeland inclusive 
of the standing crops. He began with a private capital of about 
1000 kroner (£$$ 8 s. 4d.), which he had saved as a labourer and 
shoemaker, for he combined both callings. The house — a good 
one — and buildings he erected at a cost of 3500 kroner (about 
,£194). Mr. Nielsen, who is a member of the Parish and. other 
local councils, informed me that he was quite satisfied with his 



484 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

position, was getting on well, and after three years' experience of 
his holding looked forward with confidence to the future. His stock 
consisted of three cows, a calf, a horse, four pigs, two sows, and 
thirty fowls. All his milk and other produce were sold through 
co-operative societies. 

The buildings on this place are excellent of their sort and very 
clean, the liquid-manure tank being so arranged as to form a 
base for the straw stacks. The land, a medium loam, was clean 
and well cultivated ; it bore good crops of roots, including carrots. 
Also there was a nice garden, and in it were three large hives 
of bees. Mr. Nielsen had four children, but these were grown 
up and away. I gathered that he and his wife did all the work 
of the place, with the result that he now has little time to earn 
extra money by shoemaking. That on the whole he had no cause 
to complain was shown by the fact that he has been able to live 
out of his holding, and in addition to repay debt to the amount 
of about 300 kroner (£16 12 s. 6d.) a year. 

Another State small-holder whom I saw was named Anders 
Frandsen, who lived at a place called Svogerslev Mark. He and 
his wife were elderly people, and with them resided his mother, 
an old lady of eighty-five, and a young son, who was sick in bed. 
By the way, all the family, including the old mother and the boy, 
slept together in one not very large room ! Why they did this I 
do not know, as the house is the best of those that I visited on 
this journey, and has very good outbuildings. 

Mr. Frandsen borrowed 4300 kroner (^238 5 s.) when he 
bought his property of six tondeland five years previously, but 
was applying for an additional State loan. He began with three 
cows, but at the time of my visit had seven cattle, also a sow, 
four pigs, and two good horses. Originally he was a butcher and 
stockbreeder, but possessed only a little capital when he entered 
on his small-holding. 

He told me that he was well satisfied, and could earn a living 
and pay his way, although whatever more he could make went 
to buy stock and refund debt. He bought and sold everything 
through co-operative societies, and expressed the opinion, which 
Mr. Mortensen endorsed, that the small-holding movement in 



1 



THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS IN DENMARK 485 

Denmark would be impossible without the help of such societies. 
Indeed, Mr. Mortensen added that it would be difficult for Danish 
agriculture generally to succeed in their absence. 

Mr. Frandsen, a very intelligent man, informed me that he 
thought the State small-holders as a body were getting on fairly 
well. Still the start was difficult, and it was necessary for a man 
to possess rather more than the tenth of the capital which the 
law prescribes. This, I think, from the appearance of the place, 
must have, been his own case. He said, what I could well be- 
lieve, that if he were to sell out he would find himself consider- 
ably in pocket on the whole transaction. 

I think that the reader will agree with me that on the whole 
these examples of Danish State small-holders had a satisfactory 
tale to tell, especially when Mr. Mortensen's assurance is borne 
in mind, that they were neither better nor worse than the aver- 
age of their class. Still I imagine that Mr. Larsen's estimate 
that about one-half of such people really succeed, while a third 
only just get on and the remainder fail, is on the whole quite 
accurate. Indeed, in the circumstances, I do not see how it 
could be otherwise, since even with the powerful aid of co-oper- 
ation the fight must be very hard, and one in which only good 
men can win a decisive victory. 

In considering this question, I think we should remember that 
the part of it which is concerned with public policy, namely, 
whether such men should have freeholds or leaseholds, must be 
kept apart from the matter of the actual success or otherwise of 
those men. At present it can make little financial difference 
to such people whether they are freeholders or leaseholders with 
a fixed tenure, since as leaseholders I do not suppose that they 
would be called on to pay much, if anything, less than they do 
now under a system by which they purchase a holding in about 
a hundred years. 

Of course there remains the problem of the rise in the price 
of land, owing to the demand that is thus created. But if a change 
were made from freehold to leasehold, the land would still have 
to be found somewhere by government or other public bodies, 
and therefore, without the aid of an expropriation act, in a 



486 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

country like Denmark, where it is so limited in extent, would 
still rise in value. The point for present consideration, therefore, 
is whether the State small-holder does or does not succeed as an 
agriculturist. To me the answer seems to be that undoubtedly 
he does to a very considerable extent. 

On one subject, however, I am perfectly clear in my own mind 
that were it not for the elaborate Danish system of co-operation 
he would fail miserably. By co-operation he lives and moves and 
has his being. Also I consider that he ought to possess a good 
deal more than a tenth of the total capital, for if this were so, his 
struggle would be much less hard and the proportion of failures 
would be far fewer. These are points that will have to be kept 
steadily in view should the establishment of such a class of free- 
holders, or even of leaseholders, aided by State money, ever come 
up for practical consideration in Great Britain. 

One thing more. The reader of these pages may say with 
justice that obviously there exists a great body of opinion in 
Denmark which is altogether adverse to and has not the slightest 
faith in the State small-holding movement. This is perfectly true. 
I do not think that I spoke to any large landowner or large 
farmer — for in Denmark the two are practically identical — who 
was enthusiastic about this movement, while most of them were 
distinctly averse to it. Still this unanimity of hostile opinion 
should be heavily discounted, for the reason that in every country 
with which I am acquainted, not excluding England, the large 
farmer looks on the small-holder with strong dislike and quite 
apart from the question of whether or no his existence is a ben- 
efit to the community as a whole. Circumstances into which I 
will not enter now make it more or less natural that he should 
do so ; or even if this statement is disputed, the fact remains 
that he does. 



B. TENANCY 

TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 

By George K. Holmes 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. X, p. 34, October, 1895) 

WHEN the census made it known that less than half of the 
families in the United States own the dwellings in which 
they live, the surprise that followed demanded explanations and 
the causes of the fact. Are the circumstances of a large portion of 
the tenants such that they do not want to own their dwellings, 
although able to do so, or does poverty, either absolute or relative 
to land and building values, prevent them from becoming owners ? 
Here is a country of vast extent, whose population cannot yet be 
regarded as dense. Outside of cities* and towns there is ample 
area to satisfy the keenest land-hunger ; and the prices do not 
prohibit purchase to any but the poorest people, especially if it is 
borne in mind that about one-half to two-thirds of the price of 
the purchase may be represented by a mortgage. 

The acre tracts that were sold in Illinois in 1887 brought $32.86 
per acre, including buildings and all improvements. In Wisconsin, 
in 1893, the actual selling price per acre was $22.51. In Min- 
nesota, in 1881, it was $10.03 \ an d the price increased to $13.41 
in 1 89 1. The price per acre in Ohio is somewhat higher, and 
within the period of eleven years, from 188 1 to 1891, ranged 
from $36.70 in 1891 to $47.29 in 1884, some coal deeds being 
excluded from the latter year. These prices represent actual sales 
of acre tracts of land, mostly composed of farms, as found recorded 
in registries of deeds and as summarized in reports of state 
officers. Doubtless the prices are a little higher than the prices 
of farm acres, for the reason that suburban acre tracts and some 

487 



488 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

timber and mineral tracts are included ; and these are worth more 
per acre than farms are worth. 

To what extent acres can be bought, without paying higher 
than ordinary prices, in such small numbers as poor men would 
be limited to, is somewhat doubtful, outside of suburban places. 
The average area of a farm seems to have reached the point at 
which it is economically adapted to our agricultural products and 
the methods of producing them. In 1870 the average area of a 
farm was 153 acres; in 1880, 134 acres; in 1890, 137 acres. 
Without more intensive agriculture and a change in the character 
of crops, it is doubtful whether there will be any considerable 
subdivision of farms ; and, if this is so, farm and home tenants 
cannot practically become farm-owners without buying whole farms 
as they now exist. They would thus have to encounter an average 
value of $2909, which they would have to meet with an equal 
amount of cash, or cash and mortgage encumbrance. 

With regard to home-ownership, tenants can find areas in any 
limited size that is wanted, whether in the town or in the suburbs 
or in the rural regions. The average value of a home occupied 
by an owner, under encumbrance, in the United States, is $3250 ; 
in cities of 8000 to 100,000 population, $3447 ; in cities of more 
than 100,000 population, $5555 ; and in the country outside of 
cities and towns of 8000 people and over, $2244. 

But the poor tenant need not approach values as high as the 
average one, either for farms or for homes. Of the encumbered 
homes occupied by owners, 23.31 per cent are worth less than 
$1000 ; and, of the farms, 16.47 P er cent. Suppose that a tenant 
were to set out to own a home worth $1000. He would probably 
be able to acquire ownership by advancing no more than $333, a 
mortgage for $667 covering the remainder of the purchase price. 
The average rate of interest on home encumbrance is 6.23 per 
cent, so that the annual interest would be $42. This is two-thirds 
of the interest that the landlord of the home would receive at the 
same rate. Suppose that a tenant of a home of this value were to 
become its purchaser. He has been paying the landlord $62 
yearly for interest ; now he pays him $42, and annually invests 
the difference ($20) at 6 per cent interest. By adding this amount 



TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 489 

of $20 annually to the principal, in the course of about twenty-one 
years the sum of the principal and the interest would be sufficient 
to pay the debt of $66 7. This illustration is given to show that 
home-owning is not the difficult achievement that some may sup- 
pose, if the site of the home is immaterial. If a man can save 
$333, and is able to take $20 out of his annual earnings and in- 
vest the amount at interest, it is possible for him to fulfill the con- 
ditions of the example. But, of course, a cheap home cannot be 
had everywhere ; and lot values are high enough in cities to limit 
the choice of the poor, and even of the well-to-do. ' On the other 
hand, suburban rapid transit and cheap railroad fares have enlarged 
the field of choice to suburban regions where lot values are low 
enough to be within the reach of all but the very poor. 
. If account is taken of the sales of real estate, its market will 
seem active to one who thinks that real estate is not easily pur- 
chasable for want of purchasing power on the part of the people. 
The activity of the real-estate market, as shown by conveyances 
in Massachusetts, has been ascertained for the ten years, 1880 to 
1889. The conveyances were mostly by warranty deeds of titles 
in fee-simple, but some of them were by quitclaim deeds, usually 
given to remove clouds upon the title to land already in the pos- 
session of the grantee. In 1880 there were 37 persons of the 
entire population, on the average, to each deed made. The 
highest number of persons was reached in 1885, namely, 39, 
and the lowest in 1889, 33 persons. Average for the ten years, 
36 persons ; or one deed annually to about seven families on the 
average, and one deed during the decade to about seven-tenths of 
a family. This is for a state that has a denser population per 
square mile than any other state in the Union except Rhode 
Island, and denser than any nation in the world except Belgium 
and the Netherlands. The figures, however, do not indicate 
whether this activity in purchasing real estate is great among a 
very small fraction of the population or is pretty well distributed 
among the masses of the people. 

The foregoing are the conditions under which 52.20 per cent 
of the families of the United States are the tenants of their farms 
and homes. The farm tenants are 34.08 per cent of the entire 



490 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

number of farm families; the home tenants, 63.10 per cent of 
the entire number of home families. In cities and towns of 8000 
to 100,000 people the tenants of homes are represented by 64.04 
per cent; in cities of 100,000 people and more, by 77.17 per 
cent ; and in the country outside of cities and towns of 8000 
people and over, by 56.22 per cent. 

The number of occupying owners of farms and homes is nearly 
large enough to stand for the number of landowners. To make 
their number complete, there must be added the landowners 
living in tenant families and the landowners living in the families 
owning farms and homes, in addition to the owners of these 
farms and homes. On this account I would not increase the 
percentage of farm- and home-owners (the percentage of the total 
families being 47.80) by more than about two. This ought to be 
enough to account for the landowners who do not own the farms 
and homes they occupy and who are speculators, old bachelors, 
widowers, and women whose homes have been broken up and who 
are boarding in tenant families. It ought to be large enough to 
include the widowed fathers and mothers living with sons and 
owning the old farm or home, the brothers and sisters living in 
the same family and owning land by common inheritance, and 
other landowners, in addition to those who own the farms and 
homes which they occupy. If a person owns land, it is a matter 
of common observation that some or all of it is the site of his 
home, and that he does not own other land unless he owns the 
farm or the home that he occupies. The merchant does not own 
his store and hire his home, nor does the lawyer or physician hire 
his home if he owns land. It cannot be very wrong, therefore, to 
regard the landowners of the United States as equal in number 
t<3 about 50 per cent of the families ; that is to say, there is one 
landowner in every two families, on the average. 

The proportion of farm and home tenancy in the United States 
is made high, not only by the South, where most of the colored 
people are tenants, but quite as much by New England, New York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The farm and home tenant families 
are 58.92 per cent of the entire number of families in the Eastern 
states (North Atlantic) above mentioned ; 60.63 P er cent m the 



TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 491 

Southern States on the Atlantic coast (South Atlantic) ; 57.89 
per cent in the remaining Southern States (South Central) ; 4 1 .97 
per cent in the Western states, including and extending from Ohio 
westward to and including Kansas, and including all of the states 
northward of this line (North Central) ; and tenancy is represented 
by 45.83 per cent in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific-coast 
regions. 

With respect to farm tenancy the influence of the South upon 
the average for the United States is very great, because in the 
South Atlantic States the tenant farmers are 45.84 per cent of the 
total number of farm families, and in the South Central States 
48.27 per cent; while in the North Atlantic States they are 
21.45 P er cent, in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states 18.91 
per cent, and in the North Central States 26.49 P er cent. 

The high home tenancy of the South is less influential upon the 
average for the United States than the farm tenancy of that region 
is. In the South Atlantic States 73.11 per cent of the total num- 
ber of home families are tenants ; in the South Central States 
70.78 per cent. The average in the United States is 63.10 per 
cent ; and this is exceeded in the North Atlantic States, where 
the percentage is 67.02. If the low degree of home tenancy in 
the North Central States — namely, 53.66 per cent — were as 
high as it is in the North Atlantic States, fully two-thirds of 
the home families would be tenants. The Rocky Mountain and 
Pacific states have a degree of home tenancy (55.95 per cent) 
a little higher than that which is found in the North Central States. 

Farm tenancy in Europe is about the same as it is in the 
United States, tin Germany 34.31 per cent of the farms are 
worked by tenants,) and in Holland 39.60 per cent. In several 
countries the tenancy is less than in the United States — 33,02 
per cent in Belgium, 28.94 per cent in France, 31.82 per cent 
in Norway, 28.17 per cent in Portugal, 17.32 per cent in Swe- 
den. But in Denmark the percentage is as high as 66.09, m 
Italy 55.19, and in the United Kingdom it must be nearly 100. 
(These European statistics are taken from Mulhall's V Dictionary 
of Statistics.") 



492 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Thus it appears that in the matter of farm tenancy this country 
makes no fine comparison with Europe, notwithstanding the fact 
that we have had land enough to give us all a farm. 

Although tenancy has reached a high figure in this land- 
abounding country, there is yet no concentrated landlordism. 
There is only one millionaire family that is conspicuous as a land- 
lord, and the large areas owned by individuals and companies are 
mostly cheap and unimproved land. The possibility of acquiring 
title to vast tracts of land while the price is cheap has attracted 
the investments of wealthy foreigners to no great extent ; and, 
beyond one absentee landlord, owning 40,000 acres of farms in 
Logan and Sangamon counties, Illinois, no important foreign 
landlord is known to the public. A newspaper writer has made a 
list of twenty-four citizens and companies of citizens of the United 
Kingdom who own 17,000,000 acres of land in the South and 
West. Hardly any of the land is improved or is occupied by 
tenants, and the prospect that a considerable portion of it will be 
occupied by tenants is exceedingly remote. All together, it can be 
worth scarcely more than $50,000,000 to $75,000,000. 

Since one-half of the families of the United States are landless, 
it becomes desirable to know whether the fraction is an increasing 
one. With respect to farm tenancy, it may be said positively that 
there has been an increase since 1880. The census of that year 
found 25.56 per cent of the farms cultivated by tenants. In 1890, 
34.08 per cent of the farm families were tenants. The probability 
is that the percentage for 1880 was reckoned too small. It is 
supposed that the enumerators neglected to report many tenant 
farms as separate farms, as in the case of a tenant farm contiguous 
to another farm cultivated by the owner of the leased farm, both 
farms at some time previous having constituted one farm under 
the cultivation of its owner. The tenant farm being cultivated on 
shares and the crops being stored in the buildings of the farm 
cultivated by the owner, it was a natural mistake on the part of the 
owner and enumerator to return the crops as for one farm, thus 
losing the tenant farm. The mistake might easily happen in the 
cotton region of the South. 



TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 493 

Statistics of farm tenancy were taken in two ways in the census 
of 1890, one investigation having the farm as a unit, as in 1880, 
and the other having the family. For the reason above given, and 
also on account of a large amount of supplementary work, the 
latter investigation is regarded as the more accurate one; but in 
a comparison with 1880 the former may be more fairly used. 
The investigation having the farm as the unit understates the 
degree of farm tenancy in both censuses ; but presumably there 
is little error in the reported increase of farm tenancy, which was 
2.81 in the percentage, or from 25.56 to 28.37 P er cent. 

* * * * * * * * * * 

It has been much easier to ascertain that a little over one-half 
of the families of the United States do not own their dwellings 
than it is to find adequate explanations of the fact. It is worthy 
of remembrance that we have been a migratory people, shifting 
from one occupation to another, and, as people in a new, rapidly 
developing country are likely to be, somewhat wanting in fixity of 
purpose and of aim in life. A restless, unsettled people is not to 
be tied to land. The ownership of a home hinders migration, and 
civilization has not yet proceeded far enough to do away with 
migration as a means of bettering one's condition. To the work- 
ingman home-owning may even be a positive disadvantage in his 
dealings with his employer or in the event of better terms offered 
in another place. Generally, real estate is not readily sold without 
sacrifice ; and, if he owns his home, he will not readily migrate. 
A workingman may find himself out of employment at any time ; 
and, if he owns his home under mortgage, he may be unable to 
pay the interest when due, and so lose some of his savings 
through foreclosure. The absence of permanent local interests, 
the uncertainties of employment, of new undertakings in trade, 
and of ventures in a thousand and one directions, forbid men to 
own their homes. 

********** 

When we turn to farm tenancy, it is a clear case of poverty 
and nothing else ; and those who have traveled throughout the 
United States and seen the circumstances of farm tenants will 



494 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

agree that it is an absolute more than a relative poverty. The 
farm tenants of the South, mostly negroes, are in the lowest 
depths of poverty, although without any extraordinary industry 
they could become owners of small farms. The Southern farm 
conditions may be concisely described by the following extract 
from a paper prepared by the writer : x 

Before the Civil War the agricultural land of the South was owned and 
cultivated in large areas by white planters, who were wealthy and independent. 
Their purchases and sales were made through agents and brokers, whose 
accounts showed balances in favor of the planters sufficient to meet all pur- 
chases made in their behalf and all drafts made by them for cash. When a 
planter wanted sugar, coffee, clothing for slaves, and other supplies that could 
not be produced on the plantation, they were bought by the agent and their 
cost charged against the balance in his hands remaining from sales of cotton 
or other products. 

A devastating and exhausting war, in which nearly all of the able-bodied 
white men of the South were engaged, made an immediate and radical change 
in the agricultural system of that region. Large plantations could not be 
cultivated as of yore for want of equipment, and a subdivision into tenancies 
was the only course. The ex-slaves were still there, unprovided, as many of 
their former masters were, with food sufficient to last until the harvesting of 
the next year's crops. 

So it happened that tenant farming largely replaced the old system. 
Farmers who owned the farm that they cultivated, and landlords alike, had to 
obtain from merchants the supplies of food, clothing, and farm equipment 
that were needed, and these on credit, giving in return pledges of the crop to 
come, out of which the debts must be paid. The tenants, even less prepared 
to choose, adopted the same system, and lived on their interest in the future 
crop. . . . Every crop of cotton is mostly consumed before it is harvested ; 
and after the harvest the farmer, owner, or tenant has to place a lien on the 
next year's crop, often before the seed goes into the ground. . . . 

The agricultural land of the cotton states has little sale. Merchants will not 
accept it as security for debt unless they are compelled to do so, when crop, 
mules, cattle, and other personal property are insufficient. This is one 
reason why mortgages on Southern farm land are so few. The blacks prefer 
a tenancy to selling their labor for wages; and in some regions, at least, the 
white owners who cultivate their farms find that only the inferior laborers can 
be hired because the superior ones prefer tenancies. As the planters become 
independent of merchants they are unfriendly to these tenancies, but, in some 
instances, have to grant very small ones in order to hold the services, of the 

1 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, September, 
1893. 



TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 495 

blacks, who, under such circumstances, work for wages during a part of the 
year on the plantation cultivated by their landlord. If the white landlords 
arrive at independence from debt before the black tenants do, — as it may be 
assumed that they will, — if either class is to improve, it seems likely that the 
blacks will see a service for wages encroaching upon the tenant system. . . . 

The plantation owners, most of whom are landlords, often live in towns, 
having abandoned their plantations to irresponsible tenants, who care to work 
only indifferently and for a bare subsistence of the poorest sort. A tenant 
whose crop by chance more than suffices to meet his obligations will pick 
enough cotton to discharge his debts to the landlord and the merchant, and 
abandon the remainder, knowing that he can live on the next crop until it is 
harvested. The merchant who has a lien on his share of the crop pays his 
taxes, buries his wife or child, buys him a mule if he needs one, and feeds and 
clothes him and his family. 

Farm tenants would be laborers on farms or elsewhere if they 
were not such tenants. As far as they are concerned their ten- 
ancy, outside of the South, is a distinct advantage. The require- 
ments of tenancy and of self-directed labor are educational, and the 
tenant is better off as a tenant than he was or would be as a farm 
laborer. But as compared with ownership, farm tenancy represents 
a loss to society. Its agriculture is inferior, and the independence 
of the owner is poorly replaced by the tenant proprietorship. 

Farms are available for tenant proprietorship for various reasons. 
Some of the older farmers have accumulated sufficient property to 
enable them to move to towns ; and this they desire to do for the 
purpose of educating children, and also because they, and espe- 
cially their wives and children, find town life more agreeable than 
life on a farm, while it may increase their social standing. This 
has taken place more or less throughout the entire North. In 
these cases the farmers leave their farms in the hands of their 
sons, or persons who have been farm laborers, as tenants. 

The result of inquiries in some quarters is that the increase of 
farm tenancy is a reaction from the cultivation of too large farms. 
The older farmers find that the large farms make too great a 
demand upon them after sons, grown to manhood, have gone to 
towns or else possess farms of their own ; and if an entire farm 
is not divided into several tenancies, a portion of it is placed in 
the possession of a tenant, while the owner continues to work 
the other portion himself. 



496 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

It is alleged in some parts of the West that foreclosure of mort- 
gages accounts for the increase of farm tenancy ; but this has not 
been established. It is true, however, that foreclosures on farms 
in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Jersey are from one- 
third of one per cent to one and one-half per cent of the number 
of mortgages of farms, every year ; and, if these farms upon 
which mortgages have been foreclosed become and remain tenant 
farms, the foreclosures are sufficient to account not only for much 
of the farm tenancy, but also for the entire increase. This is the 
possibility ; it may not be the fact. 

Then there is a migration of farmers' sons from farms to 
towns. Education is spoiling sons for farm life, and they prefer 
the more genteel, exciting, and social life of the town, even with 
small earnings. People do not go from town to farm. In the 
movement of population urban ward, the resulting readjustment 
that must be made with respect to farm proprietorship gives farm 
tenancy a place which to a great extent might otherwise be filled 
by the abandonment of farms. Before farm tenancy will be re- 
duced there must be considerable change in the drift townward, 
and increase in the profits of agriculture. There is little in pros- 
pect that will reduce farm tenancy in this country, unless the 
immigration of agriculturists should be turned into the South. 
The economic instincts of the immigrants are superior to those 
of the negroes and their landlords in the South, and this would 
make ownership by the cultivators encroach upon the present 
tenant system. 

* * * * * * * * * # 

There is little reason for believing that the ownership of homes 
can be promoted to any considerable extent by any scheme. It 
seems to reach the point which the prospects and distribution of 
the wealth of the people permit it to reach, whether there are 
ground rents or not, whether there are building and loan associa- 
tions or not, and whether there are savings-banks or not. It is a 
question of land and building values and of prospectively permanent 
local interests, whether the people own their homes or hire them. 
This statement, however, is not intended to cover the colored 
people in the South, most of whom, without great thrift and labor, 



TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 497 

could own homes and farms. One or both of these causes — 
wealth distribution and prospects — have made home tenancy less 
in the North Central States than elsewhere in the country, and 
have made a high degree of tenancy in the old East, with its cities 
and concentrated industries. 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATES 

By Benjamin H. Hibbard 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXVI, p. 105, 
November, 191 1) 

THE North Atlantic states, nine in number, consist of the six 
New England States, together with New York, Pennsylvania, 
and New Jersey. In area they are but little* more than one-fifth 
as large as the North Central group, while in the acreage of farm 
land the proportion is below one-fifth, and in improved land but 
one-seventh. The North Atlantic states have less than one-third 
as many farms as the North Central states. The East is character- 
ized by a hilly, broken surface and comparatively thin soil, in 
contrast to the great level or rolling stretches with the deep soil 
of the Middle West. The difference in topography, and the 
poorer quality of soil, judged from the standpoint of grain pro- 
duction, help to determine the size of the farm, which in the 
North Atlantic states averages 96 acres and in the North Central 
group, 155 acres. During the past decade this difference has in- 
creased, the average size of farms of the former group growing 
smaller by one acre, and that of the latter group larger by 13 
acres. At the same time the number of farms in the Eastern 
group decreased 3.5 per cent, while that in the Middle Western 
increased 1.4 per cent. 

In value the Eastern farms increased during the past ten years 
31.9 per cent, the Middle Western, 11 3.8 per cent. At present 
the land alone in the North Central states is valued at about the 
same figure as land and buildings in the North Atlantic states, the 
values being, respectively, $49.30 and $49.95. In the production 
of cereals and live stock the Eastern group shows not only a small 
production but one lessening, as compared to the Middle West. 
For example, there was a decrease in the wheat acreage of both 

498 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATES 499 

sections from 1900 to 19 10, but the decrease was relatively four 
times as great in the North Atlantic states. They are now pro- 
ducing a smaller proportion of the breadstuff's of the nation than 
ever before. In corn acreage the North Atlantic states show for 
the past decade a decrease of 12.5 per cent; the North Central 
states show an increase of 1.1 per cent. The movement in the 
production of oats is similar. With respect to live stock the North 
Atlantic states show from decade to decade a continually decreas- 
ing proportion of the live stock of the country. For the census 
years 1900 and 19 10, respectively, they reported 9.3 per cent and 
9.1 per cent of the cattle, 9.3 per cent and 8.0 per cent of the 
horses, 6.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent of the sheep, and 3.7 per 
cent and 3.8 per cent of the swine. 

There are, however, some important particulars in which the 
North Atlantic states rank high. The denser population encourages 
a more intensive type of agriculture, and in dairying, vegetable 
growing, and fruit growing this section holds an important place. 
Distinctively dairy farms are relatively more than five times as preva- 
lent in this section as in the Middle West ; vegetable and fruit 
farms are three times as prevalent ; and in addition twice as great 
a proportion . are classed as miscellaneous. Owing to the more 
intensive types of farming and the more careful adaptation of the 
crop to the particular soil best fitted to its production, the yields per 
acre in the East compare very favorably with those of the West. 

All the foregoing facts affect the tenancy question. The pre- 
dominating conditions point to a high percentage of ownership as 
compared to tenancy. To begin, the value of the land is not, on 
an average, very high, and in several states it is decidedly low. 
The percentage of tenancy follows very closely the value of land, 
tenancy being more prevalent where land is dearer. It is true 
that exceptions to the rule occur in a few instances in New Eng- 
land ; but New England is no larger than the state of Michigan, 
and with so many cities, and with highly specialized types of agri- 
culture here and there, it is no wonder that local exceptions to the 
general trend of tenancy should occur. Treating New England as 
a unit, the rank in value of land and in tenancy for the North 
Atlantic states correspond exactly, as the following figures show : 



500 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

VALUE OF LAND AND PER CENT OF TENANCY 



Value per 
Acre 



Per Cent of 
Tenancy 



Rank in 

Value 



Rank in 
Tenancy 



New Jersey . 
Pennsylvania 
New York . 
New England 



$47-76 
33-8o 

3 T -97 
19.27 



24.8 

22.9 

20.8 

7-9 



The relation of rate of tenancy to value of land may be illus- 
trated by groups of counties within different states. Dividing the 
counties of Pennsylvania into three groups, on the basis of land 
value, it is found that in the group with the highest value 29 per 
cent of the farms are in the hands of tenants ; in the group next 
below in value the percentage of tenancy is 21 ; and in that with 
the lowest value the percentage of tenancy is 16. The same con- 
dition prevails in New York, where by the process of dividing 
the state into three groups of counties on the basis of value of 
land, the percentages obtained are for the first group 24.5 ; for 
the second, 23.9 ; and for the third, 18.5. It will be noticed that 
in New York the range in tenancy percentage is narrow, the dif- 
ference between the first and the second group being especially 
slight. This is due in large measure to the presence of a great 
many suburban homes in the vicinity of New York City and along 
the Hudson River, which are reported as farms, though in many 
instances not a great deal of agriculture is carried on in connection 
with them. Their values are, however, high. 

In New Jersey the greatest proportion of tenancy is not in the 
counties with the highest land values. These counties, clustered 
around New York City and other large cities near by, contain a 
very great number of suburban homes of the kind just mentioned, 
and this fact, together with the influence of a considerable amount 
of specialized agriculture of the type accompanying ownership, 
has prevented the increase of tenancy. 

It is in New England that the lowest proportion of tenancy on 
any considerable area within the older states of the Union is to be 
found, and nowhere else is the correspondence of low-priced land 
and low rate of tenancy more conspicuous. The average value of 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATES 501 

farm land in New England is $19.27 per acre, and the per cent 
of tenancy is 7.9. The variation of this percentage from county 
to county is not great and does not follow very closely the price of 
land. The remarkable thing is the relative scarcity of rented farms. 

Not only the low value of land but also the smaller number of 
acres per farm is an important factor in the value of the farm as 
a unit. This value in the North Central states averages $9172,' 
and in the North Atlantic states, $4805. Thus for the purchase 
of a farm in the latter section not much over half the money is 
required that is required in the former. 

However important the value per acre of land and the number 
of acres included in a farm may be in determining the line of 
cleavage between ownership and tenancy, it is certain that some 
types of farming lend themselves much more readily to the tenancy 
system than do others. And while it is not so easy to trace the 
connection between price of land and tenancy in the East as in the 
Middle West, on account of the greater number of additional 
influences affecting the result, it is easier to identify some of these 
latter forces. 

The contrast between the tenant farm of the East and that of 
the Middle West is striking. In the Middle West it is a little 
smaller than the owned farm ; the buildings are decidedly inferior. 
In the East the tenant farm is larger by a few acres than is the 
owned farm, and the buildings are correspondingly more valuable. 
These striking differences are due to the fact that the greater pro- 
portion of tenants in the East as in the Middle West gravitate 
toward the more extensive type of farming. But in the latter sec- 
tion this means less live stock and therefore fewer barns ; the 
grain farming which the tenant follows requiring relatively few and 
inexpensive buildings. In the East the same motives and circum- 
stances induce many tenants, in addition to grain growing, to keep 
a large number of dairy cows, and dairies require good buildings. 
Therefore the rented farm in the Eastern states has a better, at 
least a more expensive, set of buildings than has the owned farm. 
And this is one reason why the rented farm is worth an appreciably 
higher sum than is the owned farm. 

As in the Middle West, so in the East, the tenant raises more 



502 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

than his proportional share of the cereals, and especially is this 
true where the acreages are considerable. In New York the 
tenants grow 50 per cent more than their share of the wheat ; in 
Pennsylvania 75 per cent more ; in New Jersey 76 per cent more. 
Corn and oats are grown in similar, though somewhat smaller, 
proportions by the tenants, and the same may be said of hay 
and forage. The important wheat-growing districts of the North 
Atlantic states comprise about 21 counties in Pennsylvania, 12 in 
New York, and 8 in New Jersey. These counties for the most 
part show high land values, yet in neither case are they the highest 
of the state. The percentages of tenancy, however, are higher 
than for the highest groups on the basis of value, being 30.6 per 
cent in Pennsylvania, 27.4 per cent in New Jersey, and 25.2 per 
cent in New York. With very few exceptions the greatest acreages 
of other cereals are found in the same counties in which the 
greatest acreages of wheat are grown ; but the farms growing the 
major part of the wheat are larger than those producing the major 
part of the other cereals, indicating that the most extensive type 
of farming practised in this section is in connection with wheat 
growing. Thus again is emphasized the coincidence of tenancy 
with farming of an extensive sort. 

The best agricultural showing made by the North Atlantic 
states is in dairy farming, and therefore the relation of this indus- 
try to tenancy is of particular interest. It may sound a little strange 
to call dairying an extensive type of agriculture, but the term is a 
relative one ; and, speaking relatively, dairying as usually carried 
on in the North Atlantic states may be so designated. It is at 
least a much more extensive type of agriculture than fruit and 
vegetable growing, both of which are very prevalent in these states. 
In the North Central states dairying is carried on mainly by 
owners, but in contrast to this the tenants of the North Atlantic 
states have charge of many more than their proportional number 
of dairy farms. The force of this, however, is not so evident in 
the number of farms reporting as in the number of dairy cows ; of 
these the tenants reported in 1900 more than 25 per cent in excess 
of their proportional allotment. The prevalence of tenancy among 
dairy farmers is further emphasized within the districts where 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATES 503 

dairying predominates. In the ten leading dairy counties of New 
York, the average percentage of tenancy is 21, — the same as for 
the whole state ; but the tenants in these counties report 38 per 
cent more than their proportional number of cows. The question 
at once arises how these tenant dairymen accommodate themselves 
to the short and uncertain tenure by which they hold the farms, 
since it is not an easy matter to move the dairy equipment from 
one farm to another without considerable loss in the process of 
moving and readjusting. The answer is that these tenants do not 
move as frequently as do other classes of tenants, and (what is not 
the case in the greater part of the Middle West) when they do 
move they have a reasonably good chance to find another farm 
with accommodations for dairying. In many instances the relation 
of landlord to tenant is much closer in this than in other types of 
farming, the landlord frequently owning a share in the equipment 
and paying part of the regular expenses, the arrangement being 
analogous to a partnership. This higher percentage of tenancy in 
the dairy business than in general farming is found in all of 
the states of this group in which dairying is a leading business, 
but not, for example, to a noticeable degree in Maine and New 
Hampshire, where large dairies are few. 

With regard to live stock other than cows and hogs, the tenant 
in the North Atlantic states, as in other parts of the country, has 
less than his proportional share. As in the North Central states, 
the tenants here raise relatively more hogs than do owners. It is 
in dairying alone that an important exception in relation to tenancy 
is apparent. Perhaps a word of caution may not be out of place. 
A large proportion (probably 75 per cent) of the dairies are in the 
hands of land-owning farmers ; but the general low rate of tenancy 
in other lines gives the dairy tenant prominence. 

More important than in any other part of the United States 
except the extreme West is the fruit farming of the North Atlantic 
states, and in this fact lies a considerable part of the explanation 
of the low rate of tenancy in this section. In the 1900 census 
about one farm in sixteen in this group was classified as a fruit 
farm, but this hardly gives an adequate picture of the situation, 
since a very great deal of fruit must have been produced on other 



504 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

farms, where it was a very important source of income, even 
though not the leading one. The tenants are in charge of about 
four-fifths of their proportional number of distinctively fruit farms, 
but in quantity of fruit produced they rank much lower. Of small 
fruits the tenant grows comparatively little, and the same is true, 
to an even greater degree, of grapes, and hardly less so of peaches 
and pears. Apples are more generally grown and are found to 
some extent on almost all farms in the East, thus bringing the 
proportion grown by the tenant a little above that of the other 
fruits. Fruit growing and tenant farming are not compatible. The 
best results in fruit growing demand continuous and consistent 
plans extending over a period of years, a condition necessarily 
absent in the usual case of tenancy. Something more than the 
moderate extension of period of occupancy noted in connection 
with the dairy tenants would be required to make it feasible for 
the tenant to become a successful fruit grower. The tenant can 
leave the ordinary farm in a sufficiently discouraging condition 
after his own interest in it has ceased, but a fruit farm under such 
circumstances would suffer vastly greater deterioration. For ex- 
ample, a vineyard left unpruned or a strawberry bed neglected is 
not likely to be a source of profit during the first year following. 
Even orchard trees are the objects of constant solicitude where 
good results are obtained. It is therefore not a matter of sur- 
prise to find ownership high and tenancy low in districts where 
fruit is a leading crop. 

It must be remembered, of course, that the price of land in 
census reports includes the value of all perennial plants growing 
upon it. Hence these reported values may cover up the fact that 
land not already planted to fruit, but suitable for such use, may be 
had at a comparatively low price. In this possibility of buying 
land, usually in small tracts and at a low price, lies a great part 
of the explanation of ownership as opposed to tenancy. It is pos- 
sible under such conditions for a man of small means to acquire 
ownership. But after developing such a farm he hesitates to lease 
it to a tenant, well knowing the difficulties and care involved in 
keeping it in running order. And the tenant on his part is seldom 
ambitious to undertake the management of such a farm. If he 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATES 505 

were, he would more likely start, in a small way, as the owner of 
a few acres out of which to make a fruit farm of his own. 

Good examples of the low proportion of tenancy among fruit 
growers are found in New Jersey, where tenancy, in spite of a 
relatively high price of land, is decidedly low, being in some 
instances under half the average rate for the state. In the state of 
New York there is some confusion of evidence, since of the ten 
counties leading in fruit production five lie within and five with- 
out the main grain-growing district. For those within this district 
the low rate of tenancy for fruit farms is covered up by the high 
rate for the grain-producing farms, — very thoroughly covered on 
account of the greater number of farms of the latter type. In 
the five fruit-growing counties outside the grain district the per- 
centage of tenancy is in every instance well below the general 
average for the state. In the other states of the group the fruit- 
growing areas are not sufficiently separate from the general- 
farming areas to admit of separate analysis based on the general 
statistics. Within these states, however, the proportion of fruit 
grown by tenants is, as elsewhere, low. 

Another special type of farming of much importance in the 
North Atlantic states is that of growing vegetables. Unlike fruit 
farming, much of this is in the hands of tenants. In the first 
place, many such farms are in the vicinity of cities, on land high 
in price, often high because of possible uses other than agricultu- 
ral. Land used for growing vegetables must be so thoroughly 
tilled that the danger of deterioration is small. The frequent mov- 
ing of tenants on and off farms of this character is not so serious 
a drawback as it is in many other instances. The buildings are of 
a simple character, and not unusually great in value. The crops 
are almost without exception annuals. The equipment needed for 
running the farm is not elaborate. Under these conditions the ten- 
ant may even come and go within the year, raise a good crop, and 
yet suffer but the minimum loss due to the difficulties of moving 
and adjusting himself to a new environment. Of the number of 
farms in 1900 on which vegetables were the main source of income 
the tenants held about 14 per cent more than their proportional 
share. Yet, as in the case of fruit, the proportion of vegetables 



506 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

produced by tenants for the market is still higher. For example, 
they grow about 2 5 per cent more than their proportion of potatoes, 
and almost double their proportion of sweet potatoes. Tomatoes 
and melons are likewise favorite crops among tenants, and in 
certain districts especially adapted to their growth, as southwestern 
New Jersey, about half of the total crop is grown by tenants. 
In making a considerable number of tests on this subject not 
an exception was found ; the vegetable-growing business seems to 
be especially adapted to tenant farming. 

Since 1880, the date when tenancy statistics were first gathered, 
the percentage of tenancy for the North Atlantic states has been 
low in comparison with that for the whole country — in fact, 
lower than for any other group except the extreme West. In the 
Western division conditions may properly be considered abnormal 
on account of the presence of many newly developed farms, and 
especially because so many of these have been taken recently from 
the public domain. In the North Atlantic states, however, the 
term "abnormal" hardly applies, since farm land was long ago 
brought into use, and the readjustments which have been in 
progress are no greater than may be expected at any time. 
Especially is this true in view of the fact that the free land of the 
West was pretty well gone by the year 1880. For twenty years 
following 1880 the proportion of tenancy not only increased, but 
the increase was shared by every one of the five geographical 
divisions and by almost every state. In New England the propor- 
tion of tenancy has been low throughout, but in 1900 it could be 
said that there had been an important increase during each of the 
preceding two decades. In the North Atlantic group during that 
time about one farm in twenty had been taken from the category 
of ownership and added to that of tenancy. The portents were 
ominous. It was freely predicted that the fifth act of the play 
would represent the farmer divorced from his land. True a very 
few states, three New England states, for example, had shown 
for one or both of the decades preceding a slight tendency down- 
ward in the rate of tenancy, but only one of them had a smaller 
proportion than at the beginning of the period, and that an 
unimportant amount. Now, at the end of another ten years, 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATES 507 

every one of the nine states of the North Atlantic division shows 
a positive, though not great, gain in ownership, and corresponding 
decline in tenancy. Nearly three farms in every hundred passed 
over from the one class to the other. This amounts to a decrease 
of 16 per cent in the number of farms operated by tenants, in the 
face of an increase of 16 per cent in the number so operated for 
the country as a whole. In 1900 the rate of tenancy in the North 
Atlantic states was nearly 60 per cent of that for the United 
States ; now it is less than 50 per cent. It cannot be an accident 
that has brought about such a striking change in the tenancy aspect 
of the Eastern states, including as a matter of fact, in addition to 
the North Atlantic group, four more states immediately to the 
south. Neither is this decline in tenancy a symptom of declining 
agriculture ; for these states, notwithstanding a falling off in cer- 
tain particulars, all things counted, make a good showing. 

The low proportion of tenancy in the North Atlantic states is 
the result of a combination of causes. The most important of 
these are, first, the low price of land per -acre ; second, a set of 
circumstances resulting in comparatively small farms, these two 
facts combining to give a low value to the farm as a unit ; third, 
the relatively small amount of farming such as lends itself easily 
to a system of tenancy, and in its stead a type requiring owner- 
ship of the land in order to insure good results. That there are 
other factors involved cannot be doubted ; but these statistics seem 
to indicate which are the decisive factors. 

PER CENT OF TENANCY, 1880-1910 



1900 



1890 



North Atlantic States 
Maine ....'.. 
New Hampshire . . 

Vermont 

Massachusetts . . . 
Rhode Island . . . 
Connecticut . . . . 

New York 

New Jersey . . . . 
Pennsylvania . . . . 



4-3 

6.9 
12.3 

8.1 
18.0 

9.8 
20.8 
24.8 
22.0 



20.8 
47 
7-5 

14.6 
9.6 

20.1 

12.9 

23-9 
29.9 
26.0 



18.4 

5-4 

8.0 

14.6 

9-3 
18.7 

"•5 

20.2 
27.2 
2 3-3 



16.0 

4-3 
8.1 

134 
8.2 
19.9 
10.2 
16.5 
24.6 
21.2 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 

By Benjamin H. Hibbard 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXV, p. 710, November, 1910) 

FROM the standpoint of tenancy the United States is far too 
large and too varied to be treated as a unit. Any one of 
the recognized geographical divisions is so large and varied that 
even a statistical treatment of tenancy for one section is sure 
to leave out of account many local and minor influences which, 
taken together, may be of primary importance. It would be 
irrational to speak of tenancy in the abstract and include within 
the scope of the term the twenty-acre cotton farm of Georgia 
and the thousand-acre farm of North Dakota. In the former case 
the tenant is usually under the eye and the domination of the 
owner of the land ; is in debt for equipment and dependent for 
subsistence ; is in charge of one thousand dollars' worth of 
property ; and is himself the owner of but one or two hundred 
dollars' worth. In the latter case the tenant is frequently as 
independent as the owner of the land ; selects his crops to be 
planted ; plans his field operations ; owns his live stock and im- 
plements, free from incumbrance ; buys and sells entirely at will ; 
owns property worth from one to several thousand dollars ; and 
is in charge of a farm worth perhaps twenty-five thousand dollars. 
Such is the contrast from north to south. Though the contrast 
from east to west is less pronounced, it is by no means negligible. 
In the East the farm is small by comparison ; it no longer re- 
sponds to cultivation alone — is not so well adapted to the use 
of draft animals and even less to the use of mechanical power ; 
diversified farming, or highly specialized intensive farming, is the 
only type which can succeed. In the Far West there is a great 
expanse of country and the greatest diversity of soil and climate ; 
a range of crops from the durum wheat and alfalfa of the plains 

508 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 509 

to the irrigated gardens of the valleys. There is land worn out 
from the standpoint of present methods of farming, and land so 
rich that those farming it believe it will last forever. There are 
farms (so-called) of a quarter of a million acres, worth a dollar an 
acre ; and farms of three acres worth three thousand dollars an 
acre. Moreover, in the Western country many farms are just being 
taken from the government in the form of homestead, Carey Act 
entries, desert claims, and the like ; great numbers are being sold 
on every conceivable plan of cooperative development and deferred 
payment, these latter being orchard enterprises as a rule. It is 
apparent that these conditions are not comparable either with the 
South, the East, or the Middle West. It is no less apparent that 
the different units here are not comparable one with another. 
The conditions are so unstable and uncertain that it is difficult to 
describe the present situation, let alone discover the trend events 
are taking. It may, however, be noted by way of further intro- 
duction that there is a comparatively low percentage of tenancy 
in the East and in the Far West ; the highest percentage in the 
South ; and, in the North, a high percentage in the Middle West, 
or, in terms of the census, the North Central division of states. 

The North Central division is a large block of country. It 
comprises twelve states, the smallest being Indiana, the largest, 
Minnesota. Taken together, they have an area of over three- 
quarters of a million square miles, or 22 per cent of the area 
of continental United States. They have a population of almost 
thirty millions, or about a third of the total. From the agricul- 
tural point of view this section has striking features. Here are 
over one-third of all the farms and farm land of the country, 
valued at more than the remaining two-thirds. In connection 
with these farms are found nearly half of the cattle, 45 per cent 
of the horses, and, in value, almost half of the agricultural imple- 
ments and machinery. Within this section there is grown two- 
thirds of the wheat crop of the whole country. Also seven-tenths 
of the corn crop, eight-tenths of the oats crop, and six-tenths of the 
hay and forage crop are grown in this division. In short, the great 
bulk of the breadstuffs and the meat, and no inconsiderable part 
of the dairy products and the fruit, come from these states. 



510 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The North Central division is often spoken of as a section 
uniform in character and quality ; but such is far from the case. 
For example, the price of land in Illinois is reported at $94.90 
per acre, and in North Dakota at $25.70, the other ten states 
ranging between these extremes. Even within a state there 
are great variations. For example, in Illinois and Iowa there is 
much land selling for more than $200 an acre, while at the same 
time a whole county in Illinois is reported at $17 per acre 
for land and buildings. Nebraska has land selling for $150. in 
the eastern part of the state, while in the western part there are 
abundant examples of the economist's no-rent land. Moreover, 
both in Ohio and in North Dakota there is land which has not 
been farmed at all. The topography, the nature of the soil, and 
the length of time it has been cultivated all help to determine 
the size of the farm, which in Ohio averages 89 acres, and in 
North Dakota 382 acres. The density of population is corre- 
spondingly unlike, ranging from 117 per square mile in Ohio 
down to 7.6 in South Dakota, while in parts of Ohio the density 
is several times the average for the state, and in South Dakota 
it falls below 1 per square mile for some counties. 

There is great diversity in the character of the soil and its 
primary condition. The greatest prairies of North America were 
in these states, and some of the best of the pine forests and ex- 
tensive hardwood forests. The swamps are great in extent in the 
northern part, though irrigation is essential to good crops in the 
western part. As a result the character of the farming varies very 
greatly. Certain states may be characterized by the leading type of 
agriculture within them. Ohio has long been known as a sheep- 
growing state, Illinois as a cereal-producing state, Wisconsin as a 
dairy state, Iowa as a cattle- and swine-producing state. Minnesota 
and the two Dakotas are known far and wide as the producers of 
wheat, barley, and flax ; Michigan is noted for fruit and sugar- 
beets ; and so through the list. It is not necessary, however, to 
go from one state to another to find changing conditions. There 
is much dissimilarity within any given state, and consequent vari- 
ety in the agriculture. In Wisconsin, for example, there is the 
regular grain-growing, — corn, oats, and barley ; there are cattle 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 511 

for beef and for the dairy, there are sheep and swine ; but in 
addition to these more ordinary kinds of farming, we find the 
tobacco farms, truck farms, and the so-called "clover-seed " farms, 
besides lands still to be made into farms. In Illinois the crop 
range is a wide one. Some parts of the state grow as much corn 
per square mile as is grown anywhere ; some counties are outside 
the main corn belt. In parts of the state clover and timothy are 
found on almost every farm ; in other parts these crops are 
almost unknown. 

With all these conditions varying so widely, it would be strange 
were tenancy a constant factor, and it is not. Indeed, it would 
hardly be possible for it to run through a wider range, since it 
now varies by individual counties from less than 1 per cent of 
all farms in some to 83 per cent in others. Over two-fifths of 
all land of the United States rented to tenant farmers is found 
in this group of twelve states, and these farms have a value 
greater than that of the other three-fifths of such farms. 

VALUE OF LAND AND PER CENT OF TENANCY 



Value per 
Acre 



Per Cent of 

Tenancy 



Rank in 

Value 



Rank in 
Tenancy 



Illinois . . 
Iowa . . . 
Indiana . . 
Ohio . . . 
Wisconsin . 
Nebraska 
Missouri . . 
Minnesota . 
Kansas . . 
South Dakota 
Michigan 
North Dakota 



$94.90 
83.00 
62.00 
53-3° 
43-3° 
41.84 
41.76 
37.00 

35-50 
34-7o 
32.00 
25.70 



41.4 

37-8 
30.0 
28.4 

13-9 
38.2 
29.9 
21.0 
36.8 
24.6 
16.0 
14-3 



The first fact to be noticed is the close parallelism between the 
value of land and the proportion of tenancy. The above table 
shows the value of land per acre, and the per cent of tenancy, 
as reported in the Thirteenth Census, together with the rank 
in each. 



512 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



It will be seen that the ranks in value and in tenancy corre- 
spond closely in about two-thirds of the states and differ materially 
in the other instances. *Must it be inferred, then, that the case 
is a mere coincidence ? Before dismissing it as such, let us drop 
three states from the list and re-rank the remaining nine. Drop- 
ping Wisconsin, Kansas, and Nebraska, the result is that, in 
value and tenancy respectively, the ranking is as follows : 

RANK IN VALUE AND IN TENANCY, SELECTED STATES 





Rank in 

Value 


Rank in 
Tenancy 


Illinois 


I 

2 
3 

4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 


I 


Iowa 


2 


Indiana 


3 
5 
4 
7 
6 


Ohio 


Missouri 


Minnesota 


South Dakota 


Michigan 


8 


North Dakota 


9 





Surely, if this be a mere coincidence, it is a very striking one. 
But why drop Wisconsin, Kansas, and Nebraska ? In partial an- 
swer it may be said that Wisconsin has always been remarkably 
low in tenancy, from causes which will be discussed later, and 
that Kansas and Nebraska have come up rapidly in tenancy, due 
to the unusual adaptability of their lands to extensive farming, 
and to the further fact that in them no considerable amount of 
available unoccupied land is left, to be taken by home-seekers, and 
so for a time balance the tendency toward the purchase of land 
for speculation. Land held for speculation is always for rent, 
and the time has arrived in these states when tenants are plen- 
tiful enough to take the most of it. On the other hand, much 
land in Minnesota and the Dakotas goes begging for occupants ; 
it must be worked by its owner or not at all, hence a very low 
rate of tenancy in the newer sections of these states, which holds 
the general average of tenancy down, in spite of a high rate in 
the older sections where speculators and tenants are both plentiful. 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 513 

It is in the older states that conditions are more uniform and 
apparently more stable, and it is in these states that values and 
tenancy seem unmistakably to be traveling the same road, and at 
a somewhat similar rate of speed. 

The trend of tenancy for the group during the past thirty 
years is shown in the table : 

PER CENT OF TENANCY, 1880-1910 



1900 



1890 



Illinois . . . 
Iowa . . . . 
Indiana . . . 
Ohio . . . . 
Wisconsin . . 
Nebraska . . 
Missouri . . 
Minnesota . . 
Kansas . . . 
South Dakota 
Michigan . . 
North Dakota 



41.4 

37-8 
30.0 
28.4 

13-9 
38.2 
29.9 
21.0 
36.8 
24.6 
16.0 
14-3 



39-3 

34-9 
28.6 

27-5 
13-5 
36-9 
30-5 
J 7-3 
35-2 
21.8 

i5-9 
8.5 



34-o 
28.1 

254 
22.9 
11.4 

24-7 
26.8 
12.9 
28.2 
13.2 
14.0 
6.9 



3M 

23.8 

23-7 

!9-3 

9.1 

18.0 

27-3 
9.2 

16.3 

3-9 
10.0 

3-9 



Throughout this period the relation between value of land and 
the rate of tenancy has been substantially as shown for 19 10 
above. It will be noticed that the slight decline in tenancy for 
Missouri during the past ten years is the only instance of the 
kind occurring in the group during the thirty years. 

The close relationship between value of land and rate of ten- 
ancy is even more strikingly brought out by a comparison of 
groups of counties within a state than in the comparison of one 
state with another. Within the state of Illinois, in a block of 
fourteen counties where farms are reported at $150 or more per 
acre, there was ten years ago 50.6 per cent of tenancy. In these 
counties at the present census there is 54.7 per cent of tenancy. 
Not only is the amount of tenancy high, but it is increasing 
rapidly, more rapidly than in other parts of the state. In another 
block of nineteen counties, in which the value of farms is less 
than $50 per acre, in 1900 there was 27.8 per cent of tenancy, 



5H READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

while now there is 29.7 per cent. This is but about two-thirds 
the proportion of tenancy for the whole state, and the rate of in- 
crease is below that for the state. The same general conditions 
prevail in Ohio, which we may view from a little different stand- 
point, so as to include all farms of the state. It is found that in 
thirty counties in the eastern and southern parts, having an aver- 
age valuation for farms of $60, or less, per acre, the per cent of 
tenancy ten years ago was 19.5 ; at present it is 20.8 ; not a 
great change for the period, and a low proportion in each case. 
In the remaining two-thirds of the state the per cent of tenancy 
in 1900 was 30.9, while in 19 10 it was 33 per cent. It is just 
here, roughly the middle of Ohio from north to south, that we 
find the pronounced break in the tendency of farms to slip out of 
the hands of the owners and into the possession of tenants, for 
from this line to the east tenancy declines, while to the west, at 
least to the Rocky Mountains, ownership declines. 

The same relationship between values and tenancy may be 
seen in Missouri, where in sixteen counties in the northwestern 
part of the state with values of $60 and over per acre there is 
33.5 per cent of tenancy. This is well above the general average 
for the state and is slightly above the per cent for the same 
counties ten years ago. In the northeastern part of the state a 
like number of counties with values below $60 stood at 27 per 
cent in tenancy in 1900, but fell to 24.6 per cent by 19 10. In 
Indiana the nineteen counties in which farms are worth, per acre, 
$100 and up have 36 per cent of tenancy. The twenty-five coun- 
ties with values at $50 and below have 21 per cent of tenancy. 
These groups happen to be, respectively, about equally above and 
below the average values and average tenancy for the whole state. 

More examples might be given, but so far as the writer has 
made the test, the general relationship holds within each state. 
That it will hold where other conditions are equal seems to be 
beyond controversy. It does not always hold good from one state 
to another nor even within a given state, because of varying 
conditions ; yet the exceptions are comparatively infrequent. 

Not only has tenancy either decreased, or increased at a rela- 
tively slower rate, in all parts of the North Central states where 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 515 

the price of land is below the average, but the actual number of 
tenants has in many instances decreased. That is to say, some 
farms which had been worked by tenants have passed into the 
hands of owners, though in more cases, as in such pioneer sec- 
tions as southwestern Kansas, the lower proportion of tenancy 
is due, not to this movement but to the development of new 
farms operated by owners, the tenant farms holding their own in 
numbers or even increasing. Or the tenants may have decreased, 
but not so fast as the owners, such being the case in the high- 
priced sections of Illinois and in half or more of Iowa. This 
of course means a decided increase in the size of farms. In the 
thirty counties of Ohio having farms under $60 per acre on an 
average, there was a decrease of more than 1800 in the number 
of tenant farms, while in the rest of the state there was an in- 
crease in this class of over 2900. In both cases the number of 
landowning farmers decreased, giving as a net result a number 
of farms for the state smaller by about 5300 than ten years ago. 
As a matter of fact the farms increased in size in all states of 
this group except South Dakota, but the increases were far from 
uniform over the states. In those districts in which the system 
of farming seems to be undergoing little change, an increase in 
the proportion of tenancy seems as a rule to be associated with 
an increase in the size of the farm. A gain in ownership, on 
the other hand, is associated with a change in the opposite direc- 
tion or with absence of change. This does not hold good in 
districts where, for example, great wheat farms are being broken 
up into smaller ones, for here the first result is an increase in 
tenancy. 

Values of land and size of holdings are by no means the only 
factors in the tenancy problem. Among others it may be men- 
tioned that the character of the farming done is not the same in 
the case of the tenant and the landowning farmer. In this North 
Central group of states, according to the census of rpoo, the 
tenants had charge of more than their proportional number of 
farms on which hay and grain were the principal products. On 
the other hand, they had little more than half their proportion 
of the live-stock farms. These two classes of farms comprise 



516 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the greater part of all farms in this section ; hence, in the pro- 
portional distribution of these farms between owners and tenants 
is seen the leading characteristics of tenant and landowning 
farmers, so far as the general type of agriculture is concerned. 
The tenant raises grain to sell ; the landowner more often raises 
it to feed to live stock. The tenant produces but three-fourths 
of his proportional share of hay and forage, and this corresponds 
almost exactly to the proportion of the cattle which he owns. In 
the ownership of sheep he is even farther behind the landown- 
ing farmer. Yet in the case of swine he has his full quota, and 
here is an exception to the generalization that the tenant raises 
grain to sell ; though he does this to a great degree, he feeds a 
great many hogs. 

The leading cereals of the North Central states are corn and 
wheat, together constituting about four-fifths the value of all 
cereals. The tenants grow only two-thirds of their share -of the 
wheat, yet they exceed by one-third their proportional share of 
the corn. In the case of wheat the conditions vary widely from 
state to state. In several of the distinctively wheat-growing states 
the tenants are growing more than their proportional share, 
leaving them with much less in the other states. With corn 
the conditions are more uniform, the tenant raising throughout 
proportionally more than the landowner. The less usual crops, 
such as vegetables, fruit, and tobacco, are grown mainly by the 
landowning farmer. Couple with these facts of tenancy — the 
prevalence of grain-growing in general and of corn-growing in 
particular, and the scarcity of cattle and sheep — the character- 
istics of the tenant farm itself. There is the same value in land 
per acre, and not far from the same number of acres, but the 
buildings are worth but five-sixths as much as on the farm occu- 
pied by its owner. In implements and machinery the tenant has 
a little less than his proportional share ; though this is due in 
the main to the fact that he is less in need of such things as 
haying tools, corn binders, or milk separators than is the land- 
owner. Tenants are seldom handicapped by lack of implements. 
The tenant farmer himself is much younger than the owner ; he 
stays on the same farm not to exceed about a third as long a 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 517 

period of time as does the owner. These facts are all significant. 
They picture a farmer with a poor outfit of buildings, with com- 
paratively little grass land, with little live stock, giving his atten- 
tion to the growing of grain to be hauled immediately to market. 
The one exception to this condition is the feeding of much of 
his corn to hogs. 

If these conditions are accurately outlined they present a 
reason other than the high price of land for the concentration of 
tenancy on the better land. The tenant is not equipped for doing 
the more exacting work of stock farming. He lacks the capital 
with which to begin. He wishes to engage in a business which 
will yield returns during the year, not after a period of years. 
Again, he is not encouraged by his landlord to go into live stock 
to any extent ; the landlord is not anxious to put a great deal of 
money into the necessary barns, silos, and fences. Even should 
he have the opportunity to raise stock on a given farm, the proba- 
bility that he will be obliged to move within a short time is a dis- 
couragement against doing so, since the next farm he takes will 
in all likelihood not be so well equipped. In one respect landlord 
and tenant seem to be agreed, — they want prompt returns on the 
outlay. These conditions cause the tenant to gravitate toward 
the section where the type of farming for which he is fitted, and 
which meets his needs, can best be done. This means a district 
adapted to the growing of grain, especially corn. 

That tenants are prevalent in the heart of the grain-growing 
section may be seen from the map published in the Thirteenth 
Census, Vol. V, pp. 98-99. The striking similarity of a tenancy 
map and a cotton-area map for the South has often been noted. 
The relation of the corn belt to the density of tenancy in the 
North has not attracted so much attention. . . . 

It is not intended to suggest that there is any magical connec- 
tion between tenancy and the growing of corn. The connection 
is very much unlike the relation of tenancy to cotton growing. It 
would seem to be due more to the failure, perhaps the inability, 
of the tenant to enter the more profitable business of stock raising 
than to any other cause. True, in some cases the landlord re- 
quires the tenant to grow corn and deliver it to him at market 



518 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

price, in order that he may have a supply for feeding stock, and 
also in order to keep his land in better condition than it would be 
with small-grain growing ; but these cases are surely not very 
common. The tenant is the type of farmer to prefer the extensive 
to the intensive system of farming. In the northwestern part of 
this section, where corn has not proved a profitable crop, and yet 
where land has advanced rapidly in price, the tenant farmer is a 
wheat grower. This may be seen on the map if the wheat sec- 
tion of the Red River valley be kept in mind, for over a con- 
siderable portion of this valley the tenancy shading is noticeably 
dark. These are the two sections, the corn and the wheat areas 
blending into each other, in which a simple exploitative system 
of farming is possible. Here tenancy is not only high, but is 
on the increase at a rapid rate. Around the outside of this 
great area there is not the opportunity to plant and reap on a 
wholesale plan. 

There is a great difference between the eastern and southern 
parts of Ohio and the rest of the state in respect to soil and to- 
pography, and the line of the division shows plainly on the ten- 
ancy map. In the southern and eastern portion, with its hilly 
land, wheat and corn are not grown in great quantities. It is here 
that sheep raising and dairying are common, neither of which 
businesses predominates amongst tenants. These businesses are 
not adapted to the ability of the tenant; the soil is not adapted 
to the crops which he prefers. It seems that a diversified type of 
farming is all but inevitable in a district of this kind. Again, this 
is not the land to rise in price as does the richer and smoother 
land, and so does not get beyond the reach of the farmer in price 
per acre. The advantage of the large holding is less than in the 
case of land adapted to the growing of grain, thus contributing 
another factor toward keeping the value of the farm unit from 
rising too high for the farmer of moderate fortune. In Michigan, 
where tenancy is low, farming is diversified. Fruit growing is 
prevalent, in some counties great quantities of potatoes are raised ; 
dairying and sheep raising predominate in others. All of these 
facts apply to Wisconsin, which among the older states has a lower 
rate of tenancy than any other in the Middle West. Wisconsin 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 519 

is preeminent in the dairy business, but ranks comparatively low 
in grain. Unquestionably there are other factors than those here 
discussed which must receive attention in a treatise on tenancy. 
Among these is the matter of nationality of the farmer, — and the 
affinity for land of the Germans and Norwegians, so numerous 
in Wisconsin, is proverbial. 

Passing to Minnesota, the chances for long furrows and a 
smaller variety of operations for a given farm increase greatly. 
And immediately tenancy is more frequently found. In a few of 
the choicest counties 45 per cent and over of the farmers are 
tenants. Why, it may be asked, since wheat farming is of the 
extensive sort even more than corn, does not the same amount of 
tenancy develop in connection with it ? The answer is not diffi- 
cult. Up to the present time wheat has been a pioneer crop. It 
has been raised for a comparatively few years, ten, twenty, or 
thirty, after which it fails to yield as well as before, and is fol- 
lowed by a more diversified system of agriculture. During the 
wheat regime the value of the land is low. There is other land 
not very different which can be homesteaded, or bought at gov- 
ernment price, or on long time from a railroad company. While' 
these conditions obtain, there are indeed always a great many 
speculators, non-resident landholders, who would be glad to let 
their land on almost any terms. But the farmer can buy for 
himself, and does, but no one can be found to take the specu- 
lator's land. 

Ten years ago there was very little tenancy in North Dakota. 
At present there is a great deal in the eastern part of the state, 
but the western half is a poor place to hold land with the expecta- 
tion of lively competition for it on the part of tenants. The same 
is true to a much smaller degree of western Nebraska and Kan- 
sas. These states, with land lower in price than that of Iowa, 
have about the same proportion of tenancy. Here again is the 
contrast between the more and the less diversified farming. It is 
not certain diversified agriculture cannot develop in these states, 
as in those to the east of them ; but it is certain that for the pres- 
ent they lend themselves more readily to exploitation under a one- 
crop or two-crop system. Here, especially, the tenant keeps few 



520 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

cattle or sheep, produces far less than his proportional part of the 
hay, but gives his attention primarily to producing corn and hogs. 
Everything is favorable for a high rate of tenancy. The land is 
too dear in price for the poor man's pocketbook. It is level, 
uniform, and easy to till. Moreover, it is held in large tracts, 
making it easy for the tenant to get in one block all he can cul- 
tivate. Under the system of farming here practised these large 
units are more efficient than smaller ones, but the great size is in 
itself a factor, in addition to the high price per acre, precluding 
ownership by a man of small means. In these states, as in the 
others previously noticed, high prices of land and high tenancy go 
together, and low prices and low tenancy together. In Kansas, 
where the land values are fairly uniform over a considerable part 
of the state, tenancy shows a similar uniformity. In Nebraska, 
where the range of prices is much greater, there are many more 
counties in each of the extreme groups, all of the conditions of 
high tenancy being present in the eastern part of the state and 
the low values excluding it from the western part. 

Turning to Missouri the conditions are essentially different. 
'The whole south central part of the state is broken and hilly. Thus 
it is quite well adapted to fruit growing and diversified farming, 
but poorly adapted to the cultivation of the cereals on a large scale. 
Hence tenancy here corresponds to that of Wisconsin, Michigan, 
or eastern Ohio, in contrast to that of the leading grain-growing 
districts. This land is still largely undeveloped, is low in price, 
and is therefore in great measure either occupied by its owner or 
not at all. Southern Illinois and Indiana are likewise not so well 
adapted to grain farming. Here again, with the smaller farms, 
and the still smaller fields, combined with low prices of land, the 
conditions are favorable for ownership, which is, as previously 
stated, relatively high. 

From two different standpoints, then, the same facts are dis- 
covered. High price of land and high rate of tenancy go hand in 
hand, likewise low price of land and low rate of tenancy. Yet it 
does not follow that the one condition is the sole cause of the 
other. The American farmer has been slow to adopt a diversified 
system of farming. Labor has been the scarce factor, and therefore 



TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 521 

the dear one. The great desideratum has been a system which 
required the minimum amount of labor, and since land has been 
the plentiful agent, it has been exploited as though it would con- 
tinue to yield crops gratuitously for all time. With the growth of 
population and the consequent demands for more foodstuff the 
value of land has followed the rise in the prices of its product. But 
the land which responds best to immediate demands rises most. 
As a result the fertile land capable of producing good crops with- 
out the use of high-priced fertilizers, or great outlay for drainage, 
rises first and highest. And while this movement is in progress 
there is a process of natural selection by which the less efficient 
farmers are shifted to the cheaper land of the outlying districts ; 
or if they remain, they, or more likely their sons, are within their 
own neighborhoods relegated to the class of tenants. Speculation 
is still prevalent in the sections of high-priced land, and is a great 
factor in keeping the price so high that ordinary commercial 
returns cannot be made on the investment except by men and 
methods above the average. This is in itself one of the primary 
causes of tenancy. Such a sifting and shifting does not take place 
in the sections where land is less well adapted to exploitation 
and less attractive to speculators ; hence the less efficient may 
retain ownership. At the same time the type of farming adapted 
to these sections favors the efficient. 

These conclusions are borne out by the fact that within the 
districts of high-priced land the farmers practising the intensive 
methods or the rational method of diversification are those who in 
great measure own the land they till. In the parts of Iowa, for 
example, where dairying is most prevalent, even though the price 
of land is high, tenancy is relatively low. The same is true of the 
intensive farming, such as truck and fruit growing. It can be done, 
and is done, on high-priced land without the aid of a separate 
landlord class. Hence the conclusion seems inevitable that the 
system of farming is a factor equally important, if not more impor- 
tant, than the price of land in turning the scale in favor of owner- 
ship or in favor of tenancy. Those who engage in what is called 
the mining type of farming are losing their hold on the soil. Those 
engaged in a more profitable type are retaining it to a much greater 



522 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

degree. Whatever forces raise the value of land make greater 
demands on the farmer who aspires to its ownership. Whatever 
increases the efficiency of the farmer makes ownership more 
probable. The extensive pioneer methods of farming succumb 
in the fact of great waves of rising prices. 



TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 

By Benjamin H. Hibbard 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXVII, p. 482, May, 191 3) 

TO THE south of Mason and Dixon's line are sixteen states 
which constitute that portion of the Union familiarly referred 
to as the South. Here are, then, one-third of the states of the 
country. In area these states fall a little short of a third of the 
total area, and also a little short of a third of the area of improved 
land. But in the number of farms the proportion is high, being 
49 per cent of the total number of farms of the United States. 
This means that the average size of farms in the South is much 
smaller than in the North. Before the war the reverse of this was 
true, but at the present time the average size of the Southern farm 
is 1 14 acres, while the average of the Northern farm is 143 acres. 
During the past decade the average size of farms in the North has 
increased 10 acres, while in the South it has decreased 24 acres. 
This decrease is the result of cutting plantations up into smaller 
farms, which in a very great many cases means tenant farms. 
A similar movement towards smaller farms in Texas and Okla- 
homa does not mean so frequently an increase in tenancy, 
since a considerable immigration from other states brings in a 
large number of landowning farmers. 

The value of the Southern farm with its equipment is well below 
the average for the country, due partly to its smaller size, but also 
to the lower value of land per acre, the lower value of buildings, 
and the smaller equipment in the form of machinery and live 
stock. For example, the average value of land in the South is 
about $30 per acre in about two states, while in five states it is 
below $15 per acre. In the North Central states, in which is the 
greatest body of farm land in the country, we find in contrast but 
one state in which the average value is below $30, while the upper 

5 2 3 



524 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

limit is almost $95 for Illinois. The average for the South is 
$16.72, for the North $46.26. In buildings the contrast is still 
greater, the average value of buildings for each acre being in the 
North $10.93, in the South $4.03. In implements and machinery 
the North has an investment per acre two and one-half times as 
great as has the South ; in live stock, an investment about twice 
as great. All told, a Northern farm with its equipment is valued 
at $9500 ; a Southern farm at $2900. It is to be noted, however, 
that the recent gains in value are more rapid in the South, standing 
1 1 0.1 per cent during the past decade for the South, and 90.1 
per cent for the North. 

Thus it is plain that the farm of the North represents a much 
higher investment than does the farm of the South. It has been 
shown in the previous articles of this series that with comparatively 
few exceptions a high rate of tenancy is found in connection with 
land high in price, and a low rate where land is low in price. Since 
land is decidedly higher in price in the North than in the South, 
and since the rate of tenancy in the South is nevertheless nearly 
twice as great as in the North, there must be some influence at 
work other than the value of land. But it was also shown in the 
articles above referred to that a considerable number of forces 
were at work in determining the proportion of tenancy ; only if 
other things are equal do the value of land and the rate of tenancy 
appear to bear a close relationship. In the South the greatest 
factor in the tenancy problem is the negro, and in proportion to 
the numbers of negroes the rate of tenancy rises and falls. Along 
with this primary factor, however, the other factors seem to bring 
about in the South the same relative results as in the North. 

The war left the Southern planter with no reliable farm labor. 
The negroes were at hand, but authority could no longer be exer- 
cised over them, and the payment of wages proved to be too weak 
in its appeal to induce them to refill the places which they had 
just vacated. The economic reconstruction of the South involved 
the development of a system of farming for which there were no 
precedents, at least none in America ; for it meant the use, in 
some manner, of a million farm hands to be employed in a way 
to which they were not accustomed. It meant that half a million 






TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 525 

planters who had lost most of their property were compelled, as 
the possessors of the plantations, to make a bargain with the 
freedmen on such terms that both parties would find it tolerable 
to proceed with the work of tilling the soil. Information on the 
early experiments is meager, but it is stated on good authority 
that the first attempt was on the basis of wages. This was not 
satisfactory, and it became necessary to put responsibility of a 
more tangible sort upon the negro. The responsibility took the 
form of an interest in the crop. By this means it became possible 
to postpone his reward, in large part, to the time of harvest. In 
other words, the negro became a tenant of the planter ; but not a 
tenant in the same sense as that implied by the term in the North. 
The terminology relating to tenancy in the South requires 
special attention. In the North we speak mainly of two classes of 
tenants, — cash and share. The same words are in use in the 
South, but by " cash " is meant not alone a money payment, but 
any form of fixed payment. For example, cash rent in the cotton 
district ordinarily means the delivery at the end of the season of a 
specified quantity of cotton. Hence, if the landlord receive fifty or 
one hundred pounds of cotton for each acre as the payment, he is 
secure so far as returns in cotton are concerned, though he runs 
the risk of what it will be worth per pound. The tenant views the 
payment as cash in the sense that it is a stipulated fixed payment 
beyond which the whole remaining portion of the crop is his. 
Another form of cash rent is where a stipulated amount of labor 
is to be performed by the tenant under the direction of the land- 
lord as agreed upon. These " cash " tenants, whether paying in 
money, in product, or in labor, are known as "renters" or 
" standing renters," in distinction from the "croppers" or the 
"halvers" who work the land on shares. The share tenants are 
of two main classes. First, those who furnish little or nothing in 
the way of equipment and who get a proportionally smaller share 
of the crops, usually half. Second, those who furnish a consider- 
able part of the equipment, usually including one or two mules, 
and who therefore receive a larger share, as two-thirds or three- 
fourths, of the crop. There is a well-defined caste system among 
the tenants. The lowest class is represented by those who furnish 



526 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



little equipment and receive half, or less, of the crop ; above this 
comes the group whose independence is measured by the pos- 
session of a mule and a plow and the means of subsistence till 
harvest time ; the highest class consists of those who can be 
trusted to deliver a certain quantity of crop or possibly a sum of 
money, and who are by that fact emancipated in the main from 
the directing authority of the landlord. 

The percentages of tenancy for each of the sixteen Southern 
States for the past four census dates are shown in the table : 

PER CENT OF TENANCY, 1880-1910 



1910 



1900 



1890 



1880 



Delaware . . 
Maryland . . 
Virginia . . . 
West Virginia 
North Carolina 
South Carolina 
Georgia . . . 
Florida . . . 
Kentucky . . 
Tennessee . . 
Alabama . . 
Mississippi 
Arkansas . . 
Louisiana . . 
Oklahoma . . 
Texas . . . 



41.9 

2 9-5 
26.5 
20.5 

42-3 
63.0 
65.6 
26.7 

33-9 
41. 1 
60.2 
66.1 

50.0 

55-3 
54-8 
52.6 



5°-3 
33-6 
3°7 
21.8 
41.4 
61. 1 

59-9 
26.5 
32.8 
40.6 

577 
62.4 

45-4 
58.0 

43-8 
497 



46.9 
31.0 
26.9 

17.7 
34-i 
55-3 
53-6 
23.6 
25.0 
30.8 
48.6 
52.8 
32.1 
44.4 

41.9 



42.4 
3o-9 
2 9-5 
19.1 

33-5 
5o-3 
44.9 

3o-9 
26.5 

34-5 
46.8 

43-8 
30-9 
35-2 

37-6 



It will be noticed that there has been for the thirty-year period 
an increase in tenancy in all but four states, — Delaware, Mary- 
land, Virginia, and Florida. Likewise in Kentucky and Tennessee 
there has been no pronounced increase in the proportion of tenancy 
during the period. During the past decade there has been in the 
four states furthest north (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West 
Virginia) a decided decrease in the proportion of tenancy. These 
four states thus have come to be in a class with the North Atlantic 
states, so far as changes in this regard are concerned. As in the 
North Atlantic states, the character of the farming is miscellane- 
ous ; there are many fruit and vegetable farms ; the land is not 



TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 527 

extremely high in price ; withal it does not lend itself especially 
well to a landlord-tenant system. It is to the south of these states 
that tenancy is high. Between Virginia and the great cotton- 
growing states lie North Carolina and Tennessee, both of which 
have, for the South, but a moderate amount of tenancy. Beyond, 
there are four with upwards of 60 per cent of their farms in the 
hands of tenants, and four more, all to the west of the Mississippi, 
with over half of their farms rented. Taking this row of states 
from South Carolina to Texas, with Arkansas and Oklahoma to 
the north, about three farms out of every five are operated by 
tenants, — a proportion far beyond that of any other group of 
states in the country. 

In the same group of states is to be found the great propor- 
tion of the colored farmers. That the negro farmers are, in the 
majority of cases, tenants, is a matter of common information. 
That they are gaining in landownership, while the white farmers 
are losing, may not be so generally known. Such, however, is the 
case. Unfortunately the Census Bureau did not collect farm data 
concerning the colored race as such until 1900, thus giving but 
one decade on which to base comparisons. The fact, nevertheless, 
of so much landownership by the negroes in 1900 is conclusive 
proof of great, even rapid, advancement in this respect, since but 
thirty-five years earlier they had owned substantially no land. 

The main facts of ownership and tenancy of both white and 
colored farmers for 1900 and 19 10 are as follows: 



NUMBER OF OWNED AND OF 

1910 


RENTED 
AND 1900 


FARMS 


IN THE SOUTH 


Year 


Owned Farms 


1910 


1,554,687 
1,387,094 


1900 














Year 


Tenant Farms 


1910 


1,536,668 
1,231,028 


I GOO 






24.8 





528 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



FARMS OPERATED BY WHITE FARMERS 



Year 


Total Number 
of Farms 


Owned Farms 


Tenant Farms 




Cash rent 


On shares 


19IO 

1900 


2,207,167 
1,879,489 


1,336,690 
1,199,832 


227,517 
186,985 


638,696 
491,652 


Per cent increase 


17,4 


II.4 


21.6 


29.9 



FARMS OPERATED BY COLORED FARMERS 



Year 


Total Number 
of Farms 


Owned Farms 


Tenant Farms 




Cash rent 


On shares 


1910 

1900 


890,163 
740,653 


218,997 
188,262 


285,931 
271,692 


384,638 
280,699 


Per cent increase 


20.2 


16.3 


5-2 


37 



PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF FARMS BY COLOR AND TENURE 





White Farmers 


Colored Farmers 


Year 


Total 


Owners 


Tenants 


Total 


Owners 


Tenants 




Cash 


Share 


Cash 


Share 


1910 

1900 ...... 


IOO 
IOO 


60.5 
63.8 


IO.3 
IO.I 


29.2 
26.I 


IOO 
IOO 


24-5 
25-4 


32.I 
36.6 


434 

38.0 



It will be seen that the negroes have gained possession of 
farms at an appreciably more rapid rate than have the white 
farmers. Worthy of special mention is the fact that the increase 
in the number of farms owned by negroes has been about 50 
per cent greater than the increase in farms owned by white 
people. The increase in tenant farms has been greater for both 
races than the increase in owned farms ; but again the colored 
race makes the better showing. In 1900, 74.5 per cent of the 
colored farmers were tenants; in 19 10 the percentage was 75.3. 
Of the white farmers 36.1 per cent were tenants in 1900, while 
the percentage was 39.2 in 1910. 

The proportion of cash and share tenancy has changed mate- 
rially during the past census decade. For the two decades 



TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 529 

preceding, cash tenancy increased more rapidly than share ten- 
ancy ; during the 1900-19 10 decade the proportion of share 
tenancy made a considerable gain, while that of cash tenancy 
decreased. Among white tenants the change was not pronounced, 
but among colored tenants it was. 

In 1900 out of every 100 negro tenants 51 rented on shares, 
while 57 rented on that basis in 19 10. 

For some years a principle in agricultural economics which 
has received prominent attention is the theory of cash and share 
rent in relation to the intensivity of cultivation. It is proved 
that a cash tenant will cultivate more thoroughly, — on the basis, 
of course, of similar conditions. The situation in the South is 
such that the principle seems to be contradicted. For example, 
in the South Atlantic states the share tenants grow four bushels 
more of corn per acre than do cash tenants, while in the North 
the cash tenants conform to the doctrine of the economists and 
produce appreciably more than the share tenants. In cotton 
yields the case is unmistakable ; the share tenant produces 
more than the cash tenant. The explanation is not far to seek. 
In the North the tenant follows largely his own plans and 
impulses. In the South the share tenant is supervised minutely, 
doing the farm work as prescribed by the landlord, while the 
cash tenant is left much more to his own devices. Hence the 
share tenant does better farming than his own judgment would 
prompt him to do ; the cash tenant does poorer farming than 
his best economic interests would suggest. 

The relation of the value of land to tenancy in the South, as 
elsewhere, is a vital one. It may be viewed in two ways : first, 
that of the average value per acre of all owned land as compared 
to the average value of all tenant land. The second viewpoint 
is that of counties in which land is high in price in comparison 
with counties in which the price is low. It is by counties rather 
than by states that conditions sufficiently similar to be compar- 
able are found. In state after state the land held by the tenants 
is higher in price (usually much higher) than is the owned land. 
The difference in the leading cotton states in this respect is 
from 16 per cent in South Carolina to 60 per cent in Texas. 



530 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

In Virginia, where there are many kinds of agricultural under- 
takings iri evidence but with no one crop by which a great 
portion of the farm area can be exploited, and where ownership 
is increasing, the value of owned land is above that of tenant 
land by about 10 per cent. In Florida also the situation is 
reversed, owing to the high values of fruit and truck farms, 
which are mainly operated by owners. 

The above comparison is made by taking the owned and the 
tenant land, with no regard as to the district in which it may 
lie. Quite another viewpoint is gained by selecting a consider- 
able area within which comparatively good land predominates, and 
a similar area where cheap land predominates. Comparisons as 
to tenure may then be tried. No results appreciably different, 
however, are obtained. The conclusion is that the same forces 
are at work whether the farms high in price are intermingled 
with those low in price, or whether they are separated. In the 
ten counties having the highest-priced land of Georgia the per- 
centage of tenancy is 71.3 as compared to 65.6 per cent for 
the state. In Texas the ten counties with land highest in price 
show 63.3 per cent of tenancy as compared to 52.6 per cent 
for the state. In North Carolina 50 per cent against 42.3. 
The counties with the low prices of land are in nearly all cases 
below the average in tenancy. The exceptions to this general 
rule are, as appears elsewhere, the instances of special-crop 
production, such as fruit, where the land is above the average 
in value, but where tenants are relatively few. 

The relation of tenancy to the character of the crop grown 
is close. Here as elsewhere the tenant grows mainly the 
money crops which can be planted and harvested within a 
single season. The most conspicuous of such crops in the 
South is cotton, 60 per cent of which is grown by the tenants. 
Tobacco is another crop popular among tenants, although they 
produce only about their proportional share. The great contrast 
between the farming done by tenants and that done by owners 
is seen in the figures for live stock, the crops fed to live stock, 
and in the value of buildings and machinery. The situation is 
about the same throughout. The tenant grows much less than 



TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 531 

his proportional share of corn and oats and about half his 
proportional share of hay and other forage crops, and he owns 
less than half his proportion of the live stock. 

In buildings the tenant is still further short, having hardly 
more than one-fourth the value of such equipment as is found 
on the farms of owners. In machinery the proportion is not 
quite so low as in buildings. In the North the tenant manages 
not far from nine thousand dollars' worth of land and equipment. 
In the South he has the management, with much less independ- 
ence, of a farm with its equipment worth not over one-fifth as 
much. The Northern tenant is substantially an independent 
farmer ; the Southern tenant is not. 

The Census Bureau in 1900 made a very interesting study of 
negro tenancy for selected counties, taking for certain states the 
fifteen counties with the largest proportion of colored farmers, and 
the fifteen counties with the smallest proportion. It was found 
that unmistakably the proportion of owned farms was higher 
where the negroes were few than where they were many. The 
conclusion was that " the negro, at least, makes the better progress 
the more closely he is associated with the white man and the more 
he is enabled to see in the example of the white man an incentive 
for becoming a landowner. Take away this example by segregat- 
ing the colored man from the white, as in the black belt of the 
South, repeat Haiti in a lesser degree, and some of the Haitian 
conditions are reproduced." A similar study of the 19 10 data for 
four of these states (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas) 
fails to reveal a further development in the direction indicated by 
the investigation of 1900. In the blackest counties there was, 
it is true, a decrease in the percentage of negro owners, likewise 
of white owners. But unfortunately for the theory that negroes 
scattered among white would be inspired to greater efforts and 
greater achievements, the negro owners under these conditions 
also decreased. They decreased at even a greater rate than in the 
black belt, as may be seen in the table on the next page. 



532 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



PER CENT OF FARMS OF SPECIFIED TENURES, OPERATED BY 

WHITE AND NEGRO FARMERS, 1910 AND 1900, IN SELECTED 

COUNTIES OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI, AND TEXAS 

A. In Fifteen Counties in Each State with Largest Per Cent 
of Negro Farmers 



State 


Date 


Farms Operated by Whites 


Farms Operated by Negroes 


Owners 


Tenants 


Owners 


Tenants 


Alabama .... 

Texas 

Georgia .... 

Mississippi . . . 


r i 9 io 
\1900 

|l 9 IO 

1^1900 

fl 9 IO 

\ 1900 

|l 9 IO 

L 1900 


59-2 
61.2 

57-5 
60.9 
56.5 

59-5 
50.2 

58.7 


40.8 
38-8 
42.5 

39-i 
43-5 
40.5 
49.8 

4i-3 


8.8 

8.5 

28.3 

28.9 

14.6 

17.4 

7.2 

8.1 


91.2 

91-5 
71.7 

71,-1 

854 
82.6 
92.8 
81.9 



B. In Fifteen Counties in Each State with Smallest Per Cent 
of Negro Farmers 



State 


Date 


Farms Operated by Whites 


Farms Operated by Negroes 


Owners 


Tenants 


Owners 


Tenants 


Alabama .... 

Texas 

Georgia .... 
Mississippi . . . 


JI9IO 

\1900 

r 1910 
\1900 
ri 9 io 
^1900 

fjgio 

\ 1900 


59- 2 
64.8 

51-3 

57-i 
54-8 
59-4 
61.7 
70.0 


40.8 

35-2 
48.7 
42.9 

45-2 
40.6 

38-3 
30.0 


32.2 

39-2 
20.6 

33-3 

24-5 
27-3 
31-7 
38.6 


67.8 
60.8 

79-4 
66.7 

75-5 
72.7 

68.3 

61.4 



On very few occasions have renters in any part of the United 
States acted in a concerted manner on economic problems. There 
have seldom been any recognized tenant issues. In the state of 
Texas, however, a little over a year ago an organization of tenants 
was formed for the purpose of bettering the conditions of renting 
land, and, if possible, doing away with it. The organization is 
called the Renters' Union of America. The resolutions passed 
at a meeting of this body savor strongly of single-tax doctrine. 



TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 533 

This is interesting, especially in that it recognizes the undoubted 
fact that speculation and tenancy are intimately related. When 
men buy land with a view to sale at a higher figure within a com- 
paratively few years, even though the income in the form of rent 
be of secondary consideration, a large portion of such land will be 
for rent. Except in a new country it is seldom profitable to hold 
land out of use while waiting for a rise in price. Therefore the 
land of the speculator is for rent, and in the larger share of in- 
stances such a landlord prefers to rent for cash, and worries very 
little about the welfare of the farm or of the tenant. Against these 
conditions the Renters' Union of America passed a series of 
long and drastic resolutions, among which was one favoring a tax 
"to the limit on all land held for speculation or exploitation." 
They declared that "use and occupancy" was the only just basis 
for title to land. 

At the meeting in 191 1 the union took a stand against cash 
rent altogether and voted that share rent should not exceed one- 
third of the crop in grain, or one-fourth in cotton. At the 19 12 
meeting, however, this action was rescinded and the matter left 
to the discretion of the county organizations. The success of a 
tenant movement in the South will find its greatest obstacle in the 
high proportion of negro tenants, who are not capable of effective 
organization. Where the majority of the farmers of a state are 
tenants and at the same time voters, it would seem possible that 
political action might be taken by which the speculative value of 
land would be reduced. That this would reduce rents is another 
question, though it might result in larger ownership of land 
by farmers. 

Unquestionably, the greatest evils of tenancy center about the 
fact of frequent, almost constant, moving from farm to farm. In 
the South about half the tenants move every year. The average 
period of occupancy by tenants is therefore but a very few years. 
In the North the same condition predominates, though not in 
a form so exaggerated. Home and neighborhood ties, interest in 
schools, in organizations, or in any community affairs can hardly 
be expected of people who are almost destined to sever their 
connections with a given community and move to another within 



534 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a year or two. For these undesirable conditions a favorite remedy- 
is the long lease. No doubt the longer lease would carry with it 
certain desirable results. It is, however, not easy to comprehend 
how the long lease is to be put into effect where landowners stand 
ever ready to sell their land. Again, if landlord and tenant cannot 
agree to continue from year to year the arrangements of a short 
lease, it is questionable whether or not they would be able to enter 
into an agreement for five or eight years and carry out the contract 
in a way satisfactory to both. England is pointed out frequently 
as the splendid example of the land of the long lease. It is true 
that the tenure of the tenant is usually secure ; but, contrary to 
the prevalent notion, the lease is in most instances a short one. 
The landlord finds a suitable tenant and keeps him almost in- 
definitely, — often a lifetime. But in England very little land is 
for sale, and few tenants hope to become landowners. In Amer- 
ica the greater number of farms are for sale, and the majority 
of tenants acquire landownership sooner or later. During this 
stage of frequent sales of farms, the long lease will not be 
viewed with favor by the landowner. Neither must it be taken 
for granted that the tenant will always take kindly to the longer 
contract. 

An impoverished soil and an impoverished people will result 
from a continuation of the present unstable conditions in the 
matter of tenancy. There are, no doubt, counteracting forces. 
A slackening in the advance in land values will make for stability 
in ownership and a better landowner class. Education concerning 
the nature of soil and crops will improve the tenants as well as 
other farmers. Better organizations through which to effect the 
marketing of farm products will encourage farmers, including the 
tenant. A better system of farm credit will make the acquisition 
of land easier. This seems to be the effect in Europe, notwith- 
standing the tendency of better credit to raise the prices of land. 
Better schools and better roads, — in fact, better rural conditions 
of every sort, — will stimulate a desire to own land and keep the 
farm people on the farms. The need for a plan by which the 
young farmer can become a landowner, and also a plan under 
which the tenant system can be made tolerable, are beyond doubt 



TENANCY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 535 

among the greatest needs of American agriculture, and especially 
of the South. No ready-made program suggests itself ; the rem- 
edy will undoubtedly be one of many ingredients. Thus far we 
are just beginning to gain a sufficient knowledge of the case to 
admit an intelligent diagnosis. 



TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 

By Benjamin H. Hibbard 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXVI, p. 363, 
February, 191 2) 

THE Western division of states, or in terms of the census of 
19 10, the Mountain and Pacific divisions combined, comprise 
twelve states, occupying the Rocky Mountain region and extending 
westward to the Pacific Ocean. In area these states are large, being 
equal to two-fifths of the land surface of the United States. From 
the standpoint of agriculture, however, they do not fill so important 
a place. Within this vast extent of territory are found but one- 
seventeenth of the whole number of farms of the United States, 
one-eighth of the acres of farm land, and one-ninth of the total 
value of farm land and buildings. In comparison with the North 
Central states there are but one-fifth as many farms, three-tenths 
as many acres of farm land, and less than one-fifth as great a value 
of farm land and buildings. 

As to their products, the Western States make a good showing, 
whether in proportion to the number of farms or to the acres of 
farm land. Of wheat these states, with 9.1 per cent of the total 
acreage, report 13 per cent of the total product. Of barley they 
report 23 per cent of the acreage and 27 per cent of the product. 
In the acreage of oats they report 5 . 5 per cent of the total, and in 
the proportion of bushels produced, 6.8 per cent. A showing no 
less good is made in respect to hay and forage, the division 
reporting one-eighth of the acreage, and one-sixth of the yield of 
this crop. A still better showing is made in fruit production, 
although comparisons with other divisions are not altogether easy 
to make. Of the total number of cattle of the country these states 
contribute about 15 per cent, and of the sheep, 59 per cent. 

536 



TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 537 

It is thus apparent that the Western States are characterized by 
a low average price of land, accompanying which one finds, so far 
as the main extent of acreage is concerned, the live-stock and the 
grain-growing industries. There are, however, a great number of 
instances of agriculture as highly specialized as is to be found 
anywhere in the United States. This, for the most part, is devoted 
to fruit and vegetable farming. Where the general and the spe- 
cialized farming is within the same county it is not a simple mat- 
ter to trace the characteristics of each as regards tenure. However, 
in a considerable number of instances the types of farming are 
fairly separated, making the case an easier one. 

Another prominent characteristic of the Western country is its 
newness. Of the acreage of farm land added to the total within 
the United States during the past decade, nearly half was within 
this division of states. More homesteads have been taken during 
the past decade than for any other since the passage of the Home- 
stead Act. During the same time a few thousand Carey Act 
entries have been made, and, in addition, large numbers of farms 
have been granted under the various other acts in vogue. Within 
the past seven years entries of public land in the Western States 
have equaled in extent the entire state of New Mexico. Nearly 
all of the farms recently acquired from the government are counted 
as owned farms and so tend to reduce the proportion of rented 
farms within the states in which they are located. f 

Of the 373,000 farms in the Western division in 19 10, 52,000, 
or 14. 1 per cent, were in the hands of tenants. This is a smaller 
percentage than for any of the geographic divisions of states 
except New England, and less than two-fifths that for the United 
States as a whole. Moreover, the price of land is lower in the 
Western States than in any other division of northern states outside 
of New England. Taking the northern and western states by 
divisions, as now recognized by the Census Bureau, the relation of 
tenancy to value of land may be viewed in the large. It would 
hardly be instructive to include in this comparison the Southern 
States, since the tenant question is there so essentially different 
from that of the North. 



538 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

VALUE OF LAND AND PER CENT OF TENANCY 





Value per 


Per Cent of 


Rank in 


Rank in 




Acre 


Tenancy 


Value 


Tenancy 


East North Central . . 


$61.32 


27.O 


I 


2 


Pacific 


43-76 


17.2 


2 


4 


West North Central . 


43.20 


30-9 


3 


1 


Middle Atlantic . . . 


33-85 


22.3 


• 4 


3 


Mountain 


19.72 


IO.7 


5 


5 


New England .... 


19.27 


8.0 


6 


6 



The relationship between values and rate of tenancy may seem 
at first glance to be a very uncertain one, and therefore worthy of 
little attention. But the absence of correlation in these particulars 
is due mainly to the high rate of tenancy in the West North 
Central division, and to the low rate in the Pacific division ; aside 
from these two divisions the rankings on the two bases are similar 
indeed. It will be remembered that in the West North Central 
division the conditions are especially favorable for the development 
of the type of farming to which the American system of leasing is 
adapted, and this fact accounts for the relatively high percentage 
of tenancy in this division. The table given above shows the 
Pacific division to rank second in value per acre, although this and 
the West North Central division (which ranks third in that re- 
spect) are less, than a dollar an acre apart. It cannot be doubted 
that if we consider only the characteristic part of the West North 
Central division — that is exclusive of the great body of very cheap 
land in the extreme western and northern portions — then the 
North Central and Pacific divisions change place as to rank in 
value per acre ; and this single shift brings the rank in value and 
the rank in tenancy very close together for all divisions. But value 
per acre is only one factor affecting the proportion of tenancy. As 
will be pointed out presently, other factors figure with unusual 
prominence in the Western States, holding the percentage of 
tenant farms below what it would be were only the more general 
type of farms found. It remains true, however, so far as regards 
farming of the more usual sort, that the proportion of tenant 
farms rises with the rise in land values. 



TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 539 

The percentage of tenancy in the Western States in 19 10 was 
less than that in 1900, when 16.6 per cent of the farms were in 
the hands of tenants. The decrease is apparently due to two main 
causes. In the first place, the great number of new farms taken 
from the public domain has increased the number of owned farms 
and contributed but little to the number of tenant farms. On the 
other hand, the development of special lines of agriculture, partic- 
ularly the growing of fruit, has resulted in an increase in the num- 
ber of small farms in the hands of owners. Aside from these two 
main causes there are important changes in respect to some of the 
leading kinds of farming, such as wheat growing ; accompanying 
these movements there has been a considerable change in the per- 
centage of tenant farms. In the main the tenant farms are about 
the same in size as are the owned farms, although among the 
owned farms is found a great majority of those upon which fruit 
is the chief crop. This would seem to point towards a smaller 
size ; but the tendency is largely offset by the fact that amongst 
the owned farms are found also the greater proportion of live-stock 
farms, which are on an average very large. It is then the farms 
intermediate between these largest and smallest ones, namely, 
the farms on which the most of the general farming is done, 
such as the growing of the cereals, which show the greater 
number of tenants. 

The land highest in price is not that which for the most part 
constitutes the tenant farms ; the situation being thus unlike that 
in the North Central states. On the contrary, inasmuch as the 
land highest in price is that used for fruit growing and this 
industry is mainly in the hands of owners, a large percentage of 
ownership instead of tenancy appears on this highest-priced land. 

In California, within the counties in which land is worth $60 
or more per acre, the percentage of tenancy is 20.1, while in the 
counties in which it is worth from $30 to $60 per acre, the per- 
centage of tenancy is 22.5, and in those under $30 per acre, 19.8 
per cent. The situation, with reference to the high-priced land, 
is unlike that in any one of the states of the Middle West. Like- 
wise, in the state of Washington in the counties in which the 
average value of land is $60 or more per acre the percentage of 



540 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

tenancy is 12.9, in counties with values from $30 to $60 per acre 
the percentage of tenancy is 1 5 .9, while in counties with farm land 
valued at less than $30 per acre it is 11.7 per cent. In Colorado 
the counties with land at $35 and over per acre show 25.7 per 
cent of tenancy; those with land at $20 to $35 per acre, 30.8 
per cent. 

Using as the criterion the total value of the farm instead of 
value per acre, it appears that the tenants are in charge of the high- 
priced farms much more than is the case with those low in price. 
In Oregon the group of counties showing the lowest-priced farms 
has 12.5 per cent of all farms in the hands of tenants ; the group 
of medium price, 16.2 per cent; and the group of highest price, 
17.6 per cent. In Washington the percentages on the same basis 
are 6.2 per cent for the cheapest farms, 12.7 for the medium, and 
19.9 for those highest in price. In Colorado the low-priced group 
shows 9.8 per cent of tenant farms, the medium, 18.7 per cent, 
the highest-priced group, 28.7 per cent. This relationship between 
price of farms and tenancy is due in the main to one general fact. 
Here as elsewhere the tenants are doing the extensive rather than 
the intensive farming ; they are the grain farmers. Conditions are 
such that the average value of the grain farm is above that of the 
stock farm, since the latter, although large, is usually very low 
in price per acre. Again, the grain farm as a unit is of higher 
value than the fruit farm, since the latter, though high in value 
per acre, is of small size. 

The proportion of farms in the hands of tenants has increased 
simultaneously with the growth of the small-grain industry, and 
has decreased where small-grain farming has declined. For the 
Western division as a whole the tenants have been raising about 
50 per cent more than their proportional share of the oats and 
wheat and more than double their share of the barley. Wheat 
growing was carried on in California on a considerable scale for 
many years until within the past decade, and was located mainly 
in the great central valleys of the state. With hardly an excep- 
tion the counties in which there were great acreages of wheat 
show a higher percentage of tenancy than the average for the 
state. Since 1900 the wheat-growing industry has declined 



TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 541 

greatly throughout these valleys, and during the same time the 
percentage of tenancy has fallen from a proportion above that for 
the whole state to one quite below it. The same situation is 
found in Oregon, where with the decline of the wheat industry 
in the western part of the state the proportion of tenant farms 
has decreased to a marked degree. On the other hand, the acre- 
age of wheat has increased rapidly in the northeastern part of the 
state and at the same time the proportion of tenant farms has 
gained rapidly. So in the state of Washington, while the per- 
centage of tenant farms decreased during the past decade for the 
state as a whole, there was a sharp increase in the southwestern 
part of the state, where also the acreage of wheat increased very 
greatly, — in fact, more than doubled. Within the twelve counties 
leading in wheat, which produce 95 per cent of the wheat grown 
in the state, 24.2 per cent of the acreage of this grain is reported 
by tenants. 

In contrast to the high percentage of grain-producing farms in 
the hands of tenants is the very low percentage of fruit farms so 
operated. The situation found in the Eastern states is repeated 
in the West with emphasis, the more pronounced condition being 
due to the more highly specialized character of the Western fruit 
farming. The more valuable the fruit farm, either per acre or 
as a whole, the less likely is it parted with under lease. The 
oranges, lemons, grapes, and apples are produced mainly by men 
who own the land on which they are grown. Of the great orange 
crop of California less than 2 per cent is grown by tenants, and 
of the lemon crop but little over 4 per cent. Vineyards are not so 
high in price per acre as are orange and lemon groves, neither 
does it take so long to bring them to bearing age ; hence a some- 
what larger percentage is in the hands of tenants. Yet in the 
fourteen leading grape-growing counties of California the propor- 
tion of grapes produced by tenants is but 9.2 per cent, while in 
the same counties the proportion of tenant farms is 21 per cent, 
or over twice as great. Apples are not grown so exclusively by 
special farmers ; they are reported in considerable quantities from 
farms on which grain is the leading source of income. Hence the 
grain farms in the hands of tenants frequently produce important 



542 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

amounts of apples. In the seven leading apple-growing counties 
of Washington one-sixth of the farms are operated by tenants, 
but they report only 1 3 per cent of the apples grown. This, how- 
ever, does not give an accurate picture of the situation, since 
several of these counties are among the greatest in the production 
of wheat, a fact which accounts for the relatively high percentage 
of tenancy. Within these counties apple growing is a subordinate 
industry. It is in such counties as Chelan (Washington) or Hood 
River (Oregon) that the characteristics of the apple farm can be 
found well isolated. In both of these counties the proportion of 
tenancy is low — in Chelan County, 6.6 per cent ; in Hood River, 

5.5 per cent. In Chelan County the tenants report only 4.5 per 
cent of the apple trees of the county ; and in Hood River only 

5.6 per cent. For each of these counties the tenants report a 
higher percentage of the total quantity of apples than of the total 
number of trees, showing that in a few instances bearing orchards 
are rented. 

Unlike fruit growing, the raising of vegetables is very fre- 
quently done by tenants. In 1900 the tenants of the Western 
States operated more than double their proportional number of 
vegetable farms, and although the same classification is not made 
for the census of 19 10, the situation is apparently unchanged. 
The most important vegetable-growing districts of the West are 
in the vicinity of Los Angeles and Seattle. In Los Angeles 
county 52 per cent of the vegetable acreage is reported by ten- 
ants, and about the same in King County, Washington, in which 
Seattle is located. These vegetable farms are of small size, con- 
sisting usually of a few acres of land rented for cash to Japanese 
or Chinese gardeners. 

As in other parts of the United States, the tenant of the 
Western division owns comparatively little live stock. In 1900 
he had not much over half his proportional share; in 19 10 
the situation was not greatly changed. In a few states, however, 
the tenants have their full quota of dairy cows, while they un- 
doubtedly have in all cases their full share of draft animals, 
although it is difficult in the statistics available to distinguish 
them from range animals. 



TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 



543 



PER CENT OF TENANCY, 1880-1910 



1910 



1900 



1890 



1880 



Western States . 
Montana . . 
' Idaho . . 
Wyoming . 
Colorado . . 
New Mexico 
Arizona . , 
Utah . . . 
Nevada . . 
Washington , 
Oregon . . 
California . . 



14.1 

8.9 

10.3 

8.2 

18.2 

5-5 

9-3 

7-9 

12.4 

13-7 
i5-i 
20.6 



16.6 

9.2 

8.7 

7.6 

22.6 

94 

8.4 

8.8 

1 -1. 4 

14.4 

17.8 

23.1 



12. 1 

4.8 
4.6 
4.2 

11. 2 

4-5 
7-9 
5-2 
7-5 
8.5 

12.5 

17.8 



14. 

5-3 

4-7 
2.8 

13- 

8.1 

13.2 

4.6 

9-7 

7.2 

14.1 

19.8 



Since 1880 tenancy in the Western States has fluctuated con- 
siderably, as the table shows. Beginning in that year with 14 per 
cent it fell to 12.1 per cent in 1890, rose to 16.6 per cent in 
1900, and decreased again in 19 10 to a figure just barely above 
that of thirty years before. Notwithstanding the decrease in ten- 
ancy in the North Atlantic states during the past decade, there 
has been in general an appreciable advance in the proportion of 
tenant farms for the thirty-year period between 1880 and 19 10. 
But the Western States show no such tendency. Of the eleven 
states in the Western group but a single one, Wyoming, shows 
for the whole period an uninterrupted increase in the proportion 
of tenancy, and, as it happens, it has had throughout nearly the 
lowest proportion of any of these states. With hardly an excep- 
tion, the states in which the most extensive systems of farming 
have predominated, and these are the older states in point of 
agricultural development, are the ones in which the percentage of 
tenant farms is highest. 

For the United States other than the South, 25.6 per cent of 
the farms in 19 10 were operated by tenants, as compared to 25.5 
per cent so operated in 1900. The difference seems to be virtu- 
ally nil. To say, however, that the advance in the proportion of 
tenancy has come to a standstill would be unwarranted. As 
shown in the preceding articles in this series, the tendency is still 



544 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS ' 

apparently toward more tenancy in the greater portion of the 
upper Mississippi Valley, by far the most important agricultural 
area of the North. This tendency toward slow but certain increase 
is offset for the present, partly by the decreases in the East 
where cheaper land and specialized farming promote ownership, 
and partly by the peculiar conditions of the Western division of 
states, where both specialized agriculture and the public domain 
are factors in keeping the proportion of ownership high and that 
of tenancy low. No type of farm is immune from tenancy infec- 
tion, though a few types are nearly so, while, on the other hand, 
certain types are especially susceptible. The change, so far as the 
great body of farms in the North is concerned, is imminent, not- 
withstanding the apparent respite in the advance. Yet it remains 
true that the increase in the proportion of rented farms for the 
United States as a whole, from 35.3 per cent in 1900 to 37 per 
cent in 19 10, is due chiefly to the relative increase of farms 
of this class in the South, where the problem is an essentially 
different one. 

Although there are many tenants in the United States, there is, 
outside of the colored tenants of the South, no tenant class. The 
tenants are young men who turn to this way of getting a start in 
the business of farming. In almost all cases the beginning is 
made in the hope of becoming a farm owner within a compara- 
tively few years. That hope, though frequently long deferred, is 
eventually realized in the greater number of cases. For example, 
the census of 1900 shows that between the ages of 25 to 34 
more farmers were tenants than farm owners. But the change in 
form of ownership begins at once after the age of 34, and for the 
higher-age groups owners are more numerous than tenants. At 
the age of 65 years or over, owners are more than five and a half 
times as numerous. There has been much dispute as to whether 
or not tenancy is a step toward ownership, but the case does not 
seem open to argument. Tenancy is a means of getting a foot- 
hold and makes possible the ultimate ownership of land. The 
only question — an open one — is whether it is the best means 
of accomplishing the result. 



TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 545 

Though we have many tenants, we do not have, outside of a 
few instances, a tenant system. The relation of tenant to land- 
lord is an uncertain one, and very frequently one unsatisfactory 
to both parties. Such it must remain until the landlord is willing 
to content himself with a reasonable rate of income on the in- 
vestment rather than to hope for something more than ordinary 
income, something in the nature of speculative gain to be realized 
only by selling the land. On the other hand, the tenant must be 
given some assurance that he may stay, if he wishes, more than 
a year or two on the same farm. Men fail to become landowners, 
or postpone for years the time when they become owners, because 
farming as they pursue it does not pay well enough to enable 
them to buy land. The reason it fails to pay better is doubtless 
because the tenant as a rule is not a good farmer ; but the fault 
is not altogether his. The owner of the land leases it under such 
terms that the tenant is not encouraged in the use of scientific 
methods. The tenant is far from being a conservationist. He is 
interested in immediate results, and immediate results are obtained 
by exploitation. Moreover, the tenant does not even produce the 
best crops ; he lags behind the farmer who tills his own soil. From 
two standpoints, then, society has cause for complaint ; for society 
has a right to expect good results in the yield of crops and such 
care of the soil that it will continue at its maximum productivity. 
Furthermore, society is concerned with the relation of every in- 
dividual to the community ; but the tenant is little disposed to 
assume community responsibilities. 

To complain of the growth of tenancy is useless. The serious 
question is that of a remedy. A remedy, if there be one, must be 
in the nature of a plan by which a young farmer can buy land. 
With the land high in price, the purchase must be mainly on 
credit. True, the products of the farms are also high in price, 
but our bunglesome system of distribution returns to the farmer 
but half or two-thirds of the price the consumer shortly pays. 
Could the farmer overcome this expensive way of getting his 
wares to the market, he could more easily own the land on which 
they grow. Another great problem is that of agricultural credit. 



546 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

It has been well solved in several European countries ; but in 
America the farmer pays a high rate of interest on what he 
borrows, and is frequently short of ready capital for carrying 
on advantageously the operations of the year. A good system of 
marketing and a good system of credit would retard the move- 
ment toward tenancy. But even so, an equitable system of leasing 
land is needed, one which in itself will make tenancy more tol- 
erable and possibly less frequent. The arrangement under which 
one man owns the land and another tills it is not necessarily bad ; 
it may conceivably be of advantage. Yet it must be recognized 
that landownership on the part of the farmer is one of the best 
assets he can have both as a producer and as a citizen. 



IV. AGRICULTURAL LABOR 

ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 
A SOCIOLOGICAL TREATISE 

By M. A. Barber 

[The following article describes, with much acumen, a type of farm laborer 
which is peculiarly American, and of the nineteenth century. Most American 
farmers doubtless looked upon the farm hand of that period as normal and 
took him as a matter of course. But he was a highly specialized development ; 
probably nothing like him ever existed before and may never exist again. 
Therefore this description is not only of present scientific value, but will at 
some future time possess great historic value. — Ed.] 

NO REPUTABLE sociologist nowadays ventures to present 
his work to the public until he can point to a firm basis of 
personal experience on which to rest his thesis. I hasten there- 
fore to preface this paper with a description of that period of my 
life when I was a hired hand on a Kansas farm, and you will 
readily see by the frequent use I am required to make of the 
personal pronoun, both subjective and objective, that I am not 
wholly ignorant of that of which I write. 

On the completion of my junior year in the Burlington high 
school, I felt that I ought to get out and do some real work, 
work that should not only preserve me from further idleness, but 
bring some financial advantages besides ; so I agreed to tend the 
twenty-five acres or so of corn on the farm of Napoleon and 
Abigail Thornrich, for the consideration of fourteen dollars per 
month and keep. Not that Mr. Thornrich would have needed help 
in ordinary years, but he had been convinced by some insurance 
company that it would be much more profitable to persuade other 
farmers to renew their lapsed insurance policies than it would be 

547 



548 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

to farm himself ; and since his son Charlie had become incapaci- 
tated for manual labor by a clerkship he had once held in Chicago, 
it became necessary to hire a man. 

The first week or so of sociological life was a rather bitter ex- 
perience, for, besides being green to hard work, I was decidedly 
ill. I do not know whether it was due to the cold and dampness 
of the well I helped my father clean out, or to the fumes of the 
green paint I used to renovate a lot of blinds. I am only sure 
that the cherries in my father's yard, then just arrived at that 
dangerous limbo which lies between toothsomeness and whole- 
someness, had nothing to do with my state of health. But, what- 
ever the cause, I had during those first days neither satisfactory 
rest nor appetite. I had only thirst and high ideals of the mission 
of the hired man. My employer was very kind and kept coun- 
selling me, " take it easy, bub," and Charlie used to bring me 
decoctions of ginger in the field when I was thirsting for cold 
water ; but I thought I had hired out to work and had to earn 
my salary, even if every muscle of my aching back seconded the 
advice of my employer. I did give in once to the extent of asking 
the advice of my brother, who lived on an adjoining farm, as to 
whether I ought not to lay off until I got well. But, after the 
peculiar fashion of older brothers, he seemed to think I would 
get well more quickly by sticking to work, and so I got from him 
no encouragement to quit. 

It was well enough that I did not, for I soon recovered spirits 
and appetite, and until my ingrowing toe-nail came into the prob- 
lem I was fairly free from all physical discomforts. 

After the corn was laid by the estate had no further use for 
a hired man and so I resigned. Shortly afterwards I hired out 
again to my brother for the haying season. This afforded me 
another viewpoint of this important economic question. As I 
shall elaborate later in my chapter on the social status of the 
hired man, this employee enjoys social equality and, on Kansas 
farms at least, a considerable degree of respect besides. Now, 
when you work for a brother fifteen years your senior, you may 
be treated as a social equal, but respect — that is a different 
matter. So I advise all experimenters in sociology to work for 



ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 549 

an older relative for a term, if they would have full opportunity 
of studying all phases of their subject. 

After my brother's hay was all in, the Thornrich farm was 
once more in need of a hand, so I hired out again, this time at 
the advanced wages of seventy-five cents a day, during the hay- 
ing season. This advance was given me, first because I was now 
skilled labor, and secondly because of the theory that haying is 
harder than ordinary farm work — an economic fiction in this 
case, for quite the reverse was true. For, since I had to perform 
the whole round of haying duties myself, I had plenty of variety, 
and lighter work than that of the man who pitches on the load 
and on the stack all day. My first duty was to mow a small 
tract, which included taking the machine to a neighboring black- 
smith for its bi-weekly treatment. 

Here I will mention an apparent anomaly (but in truth the 
rule), or, as I should say, since I am writing a sociological paper, 
a broad generalization. The more inventive the farmer, the more 
decrepit the tools on his farm. Now, Mr. Thornrich was some- 
thing of an inventor. He had devised a method of setting tires 
which was a great improvement on the common method. Ordi- 
narily, in accomplishing this end you shorten the tire; by Mr. 
Thornrich's method you enlarged the wheel. This was accom- 
plished in the following manner. By means of a lever placed 
on the hub of the wheel, you lifted what, to avoid technical 
terms, I will call the wooden rim just inside the metallic tire, 
and inserted a washer at the end of the spoke to hold it in 
place. This you repeated in turn on all the spokes of the wheel, 
until your vehicle rattled no more. It is true that you might 
square the circle of the wheel, or at least make a polygon of it, 
but you tightened the tire. Not only did Mr. Thornrich possess 
mechanical skill in himself, but he had transmitted a goodly 
portion of it to his son. Charlie had constructed a buckboard 
himself, using for this purpose, if I remember rightly, the cast-off 
wheels of a cultivator. This vehicle was properly constructed in 
all its parts, and might have lasted out its hundred years but 
for the minor defect of having the nuts at the hub screw on in 
a direction opposite to that of the movement of the wheel, so 



550 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

that the buckboard had the habit of quietly divesting itself of its 
wheels when it got well clogged with mud or dust. While I do 
not consider that Mr. Thornrich was always happy in his me- 
chanical devices, I should not go the length of subscribing to 
the opinion which the blacksmith expressed one day when I had 
the machine around to have a broken guide mended. I had told 
him that Mr. Thornrich had said that if he had only had the 
proper tools he could have fixed the break himself easily enough, 
as all it needed was a substitute for the broken guide. " Substi- 
tute, eh," said Vulcan, " substitute ! Now, yew tell old man Thorn- 
rich that he 's kind of a durn substitute himself." I did not tell 
Mr. Thornrich, but I told Charlie, who seemed mightily amused. 

But to return to the haying. After a sufficient amount of 
grass had been cut and dried, I raked it. Then I hitched up 
to the old hayrack and, accompanied by Charlie, went out for 
a load of hay. I pitched on, and Charlie loaded. On arriving 
at the barn, Charlie retired to the parlor and Mr. Thornrich 
came out to stack while I pitched off ; easy enough work, when 
you remember that a good part of our time was spent on the 
half or three-quarters of a mile's road which intervened between 
the hay field and the barn. Thus between the three of us we 
got up a supply of hay for the winter. We were three now, be- 
cause Mr. Thornrich had returned from his insurance venture. 
That spring, beginning very wet, had turned off dry, so that 
the ground soon became of the consistency of well-baked bricks. 
And it was bricks without straw that year, so that the farmers 
preferred to risk the ills to come rather than submit to the pres- 
ent evil of paying insurance premiums. With the hay all in, my 
experience as an employee ended for that summer, and I returned 
to the quiet and leisurely life of a student in the Burlington 
high school. 

I have, perhaps, so far taxed your patience with this rather 
long preliminary that I may have to abbreviate the solider part 
of my paper, but, as I stated at the beginning, it is necessary 
nowadays to convince the reader of a paper of this sort that the 
writer is equipped with a practical, first-hand knowledge of his 
subject. As to qualifications, I claim two important points of 



ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 551 

superiority over the average experimenter. In the first place, I 
was a real hired man. The sociological tramp or beggar must 
feel that the note-book which he carries under his rags is a bar- 
rier to a full sympathy with his subject ; and he must admit that 
if he became the real thing, the first thing he would do would 
be to pawn his fountain pen for the price of a drink. Again, I 
embody this experience in a treatise only after twenty years of 
meditation on my data. This last custom I strongly commend 
to all sociological writers. What a gain to sociological literature 
if practical experiences were never served to the public until they 
had ripened twenty years in the brain of the scientist ! 

Hoping I have won your confidence, I now begin on the first 
chapter of my book. No, I forget : I must first insert a chapter 
setting forth the importance of my theme and the neglect which 
it has suffered in the past at the hands of other writers. 

This importance and this previous neglect are so self-evident, 
however, that a sentence or two must convince you of their ex- 
istence. Page after page is written on the tramp, the grafter, 
the lace-maker, and what not ; but how many articles have you 
seen setting forth the condition of the hired man, that patient, 
unorganized, unstriking but all-important factor in the machin- 
ery of an agricultural people ? That he may be neglected no 
longer, I will cut this chapter down to a single paragraph and 
proceed at once to my second chapter, The Remuneration of the 
Hired Man. 

During my time adult hired men got from fifteen to seven- 
teen dollars a month, board, room, washing, and lodgings included. 
In some exceptional cases more was paid. At the present time 
wages are a little higher — from seventeen to twenty dollars a 
month. In other words, it takes the earnings of about five days 
to buy a pair of top boots and overalls, while in my time it took 
about a day longer. To earn a top buggy now requires the sav- 
ings of about four months, and to earn a suit of good clothes 
requires a full month longer. So counting in the expense of 
horse feed — the hired man usually owns a horse — nearly a 
whole season's work is needed to properly equip the farm laborer 
for the pleasures of the winter literary society, singing school, 



552 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and church socials. At the present time some farmers furnish 
a small house and garden, with privileges of pasture, to a married 
man and his wife. Both board themselves and do their own 
washing. Under such conditions, the man receives from twenty 
to twenty-five dollars per month. Since top buggy and other 
society expenses are saved under these circumstances, this is 
probably the most economical way to hire out. 

From a consideration of the income of the hired man, we are 
naturally led to Chapter III, The Pleasures of the Hired Man. 

Among these I will mention first the athletic pleasures. It 
seems peculiar that the man who works hard with his muscles 
from about five in the morning until half-past eight in the even- 
ing, with a short nooning, of an hour perhaps, should, especially 
if he be a young man, turn to athletics the first thing after the 
chores are done in the evenings. Foot-races, jumping, turning 
pole, swimming, all are popular, especially if some neighbor lad 
comes over from the next farm to join in. If the weather is such 
as to prevent farm work — a meteorological condition rare in the 
records of the " hand " hired by the month — the boys hunt for 
a pitchfork handle suitable for a turning pole, or search for four 
horseshoes of sufficient uniformity to serve as quoits. On many 
an evening after the work was done I have joined a party to go 
swimming in some neighboring mud hole.- When the ponds, so 
common on Kansas farms, are just newly made, they may be 
grass-bottomed — famous watering places then, and the rendez- 
vous of all the boys of the neighborhood ; but in an alluvial region 
this happy state of affairs is but transitory. You walk into the 
water until there is a temperate zone of warmth about your middle 
while your feet are several inches deep in the frigid mud, and 
bubbles of gas, stirred from their resting place at the bottom of 
the pool, rise gurgling along your legs. While you are in deep 
water you can keep reasonably clean, but on coming out, the first 
thing after completing the bath is to look for some place to 
wash yourself. 

Among the pleasures not athletic are the summer ice-cream 
socials, destined more for the glory and advancement of the 
church, however, than for the pleasure of man. You ride six or 



ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 553 

eight miles of a dark night after a hard day's work, your fatigue 
aggravated by the good clothes you have to wear. Arriving at the 
school-house, you are invited to pay ten cents for a dish of watery 
ice-cream and a square of cake, served by some young woman 
whom you do not know and are afraid of being introduced to. 
After the refreshments, if you are refreshed, and the programme, 
if there is a programme, you drive home again, to arrive, perhaps, 
a little before breakfast-time. 

But the real, the substantial pleasure of the hired man's life, 
especially if he is hired by the day during the haying season, is 
the rainy day. Does the pious Hindoo, his hundred cycles of 
laborious life completed, awake to diviner music than the melody 
of pattering rain, accompanied by the staccato of dripping eave- 
troughs ? When you meet your employer dowmstairs, your face 
wears a look of gloom. " It's too bad, isn't it, to lose that hay 
we raked up yesterday; but" — and how easy it is for your counte- 
nance to lighten up again — " but this is a mighty fine thing for 
the corn." 

I hardly know where to classify my paragraph on The Religious 
Life of the Hired Man, and it may be best to devote a whole 
chapter to this important topic in the second edition of my work. 
For the present, however, I shall put it in with the social pleasures, 
though it must be admitted that the expedient is hardly a happy 
one. For, in the first place, it is necessary to put on a coat and 
vest for the church-going, and, since the same good suit does for 
both summer and winter, it is a costume hardly suitable for a hot 
summer day. You ride to the service seated on the front seat of 
the spring wagon with your employer, while the women folks of 
the family occupy the seat behind, the one with a back to it. 
And, while your seat may be cushioned, it seems far less com- 
fortable than the hayrack, and the whole drive is in harmony with 
your stiff Sunday suit. On arriving, the women folks are unloaded 
on the platform in front of the school-house, while you go with 
your employer to help tie the team — an important operation, 
sometimes, and one involving considerable knowledge of equine 
psychology. I remember, for instance, a certain Old Bill, who 
tolerated no hitching rope except that which connected him with 



554 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

his manger. He would stand quietly for hours beside his haltered 
mate, but to attempt publicly to confine his own person was to 
invite a certain and disastrous interruption of the Sunday deco- 
rum. This task done, you go to the shade of the school-house 
and talk crops and weather with the other farmers until the 
arrival of the preacher's buggy announces that it is time to rejoin 
the women who sit stiffly inside. No, I did not mean to say re- 
join ; for you go with the other men to a place on the men's 
side — it is only the young man who has taken a girl to church 
who dares to cross the aisle which separates the sexes, accus- 
tomed from childhood to sit on opposite sides of the school-house. 
Who knows how much influence this custom has had on our anti- 
suffrage legislators, many of them brought up in country districts, 
and trained to the idea that in all public functions it is necessary 
to have a great gulf fixed ? 

The services begin with a hymn or two, the timid soprano on 
the left joining in with a thunderous but uncertain bass on the 
right. Then comes the sermon, not a dissertation on the author- 
ship of the writings of Moses, not higher criticism sandwiched 
in between a text and a prayer, but a real sermon, rousing amens 
from the seats in front and echoes from the fields about ; and the 
minister closes, not with an appeal to your judgment regarding 
this or that biblical authority, but with the request that you stand 
up and be convicted of sin. 

The going home is rather pleasanter, for you have the immediate 
prospect of getting into some more comfortable clothes, and the 
more remote one of getting something to eat. The attendance at 
church and Sunday-school delays domestic operations somewhat, 
and the Sunday dinner is always late. 

The parlor is open Sunday afternoons, and you may enter with 
the rest of the family and have your turn at the religious and 
the secular weekly. There may be callers to help entertain, and 
you get the temporary relaxation of turning the ice-cream freezer 
or of going out to the well to haul up the watermelon. Together 
with your employers, you rise into the higher social stratum of 
the day, a remark which brings me to my next chapter, The 
Social Status of the Hired Man. 



OX THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAX 555 

As children, we used to number the years on the farm by the 
" hands" we had employed, much as nations mark their calendars 
by their changes of kings. There was the year of Will Williams, 
the years of Owen Williams, the summer we hired Bill Jones, the 
interregnum which followed the turning off of Bob Peters, and 
so on. One of the marked characteristics of American farm life 
is its democracy, and this is well illustrated by the relations which 
exist between employer and hired man. Often the son of a 
neighboring farmer, the "hand" enjoys the same consideration 
as that received by a member of the family. He sits at the same 
table, and shares in the dishes as early and often as the other 
men of the family. He probably would be asked to join in the 
evening game of checkers or authors, if there were anv evening 
between summer chores and bedtime. He has a voice in familv 
debates regarding the election of a new schoolma'am. and his 
opinion is of weight in the discussion of current politics or the 
proper time for weaning calves. His joys are those of his em- 
plovers and his sorrows their sorrows. A discussion of these 
sorrows I have reserved for a separate chapter, The Sorrows of 
the Hired Man. 

In my preface I dwelt sufficiently on the physical ills contingent 
on farm life, and I need mention them no further. Considering 
the wholesomeness of out-of-door work, they are probablv less 
than those of young men of any other profession. The ill that I 
shall describe I ought, perhaps, to classify as a psychological one, 
that sorrow of the hired man occasioned by the bashful conscious- 
ness of being a farm hand — an evil, like his joys, not peculiar to 
his condition, but shared by his foster-brothers, the sons of the 
family. This feeling does not disturb ordinarily, but intrudes onlv 
on occasions when he is contrasted with people who walk in dain- 
tier paths. One of these occasions arrives when a town girl comes 
out to spend a week with an older daughter of his emplover, in 
response, possibly, to an invitation made when both girls were 
students in the Normal. Then the hired man suddenly realizes 
how great his hands have grown, and how awfully his boots 
sound on the uncarpeted floor. The croquet mallet becomes a 
maul in his fingers, and his tongue is the tongue of an ox. His 



556 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

affliction becomes doubly great when the town girl's brother or 
"feller" comes out to take her home. Then he longs for a cyclone 
or a fire to bring out his hidden excellences — some emergency 
that might show that he could do things which "that dude" 
could n't. 

Another contrast, but of a different sort, occurs when the 
preacher stops in at supper time and stays all night. The hired 
man feels a sort of contempt for " that fine-haired feller with such 
a stand-in with the women folks," especially when he sees that he 
doesn't half know how to unhitch his horse. But with his con- 
tempt comes a feeling of dread, dread of that awful time just 
before going to bed, when the preacher is to have his innings. 
During the whole evening there is a cloud over the family. No 
one ventures even a whispered joke in the corner, and the talk 
invariably takes an uninteresting turn. Finally comes the expected 
hitch in the conversation, the head of the family coughs, clears 
his throat twice, then comes out with the inevitable, " Brother X, 
will you read ? " The hired man scarcely hears the voice of the 
minister, he thinks only of the crisis to come at the reading's end. 
Will he be expected to kneel, or, being a hired man, will just 
bowing the head a little suffice ? Finally the minister's voice 
ceases, and the women of the family follow the visitor's example 
and kneel, squarely facing their chairs, while the men assume 
various awkward compromises between inclination and* duty. The 
hired man hesitates an instant, then, yielding to the power of 
example, lets one knee slip down from his chair to the floor, and 
thus painfully waits until the blessing of Heaven, having been 
invoked by the speaker on the nation, the state, this particular 
farm, the family in general, and each member of it in particular, 
is finally directed to " the servant within thy house and his well- 
being," and the welcome "amen" releases this functionary from 
his cramped position. The preacher makes some commonplace 
remark to unlimber the minds of the family, a remark which 
somehow suggests to the hired man, as he bolts thankfully to his 
bedroom, the satisfaction of a surgeon after a successful operation. 
I wonder if this ceremony was followed by the preacher of twenty 
years ago in response to a feeling of duty, merely, or whether he 



ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 557 

ever believed that he was doing missionary work and that the 
temporary altars which he set nightly up would endure in the face 
of long-standing family customs. 

But to return to the more strictly economic side of our work, 
we turn to Chapter V, The Mobility of the Hired Man. In this 
country, where land is comparatively cheap, and money readily 
obtained, on presentation of proper security, the way is open for 
the hired man to emerge from the province of labor into that of 
capital. If he is a fairly good farmer, he can become a renter, 
receiving a share of the crop in return for his service in tilling the 
land. Or he may take up a piece of raw land, marry his former 
employer's eldest daughter, settle down in a sod or log dwelling, 
and, soon surrounding himself with a family and a mortgage of his 
own, become himself an employer of hired men. 

These considerations may make more credible the statement 
contained in my concluding chapter on Means of Improving the 
Condition of the Hired Man ; for my conclusion is so at variance 
with that usually found at the close of sociological works that I 
feel that I must present all the evidence if I am to make my 
readers agree with me. My position is in brief that, considering 
the numerous joys of the American farm laborer — his small 
expense account, his freedom from all perplexities as to what 
to do with his surplus time, his high social status, his religious 
privileges, and finally the ease with which he can rise into a 
higher economic plane — the condition of the hired man cannot 
be improved. Since, then, I present a healthy subject, and deal 
with a problem in social physiology rather than social pathology, 
I may dispense with the materia medica which commonly forms 
a considerable part of treatises of this kind. The advantage is 
twofold. The reader is spared an enumeration of the various 
sociological sedatives, stimulants, and narcotics usually prescribed, 
and I am spared the labor of further writing and may bring 
my treatise to a close. 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 

By Sir Rider Haggard 

(Reprinted from " Rural England." Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906) 

THE second great danger that threatens English husbandry is 
the lack of labour, with the comparatively high price and 
indifferent quality of what remains. As to the conditions of the 
supply in those counties of which these volumes treat, I must re- 
fer the reader to what I have already written. Generally, however, 
it may be said that the question is most pressing in the south of 
England, or near to seaport and manufacturing towns, and least so 
in some of the eastern and more northerly counties. In certain 
districts, also, labour has been much more plentiful of late owing to 
the slackness of trade, which has thrown a number of loose hands 
out of work in the towns or in brick works and building centres. 
The real peril both to agriculture and, what is even more 
important, to the country at large lies, however, in the fact that 
the supply is being cut at its source. The results of my inquiries 
on this point are even worse than I feared. Everywhere the 
young men and women are leaving the villages where they were 
born and flocking into the towns. As has here been shown again 
and again, it is now common for only the dullards, the vicious, or 
the wastrels to stay upon the land, because they are unfitted for 
any other life ; and it is this indifferent remnant who will be the 
parents of the next generation of rural Englishmen. It must be 
remembered that the census returns do not tell the whole truth 
of this matter, since very often rural districts include large town- 
ships. Also the elderly folk and many young children still remain 
in the villages, the latter to be reared up at the expense of the 
agricultural community for the service of the cities. As they 
mature into the fulness of manhood or womanhood they leave the 
home and are seen no more. 

558 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 559 

This is certain — for I have noted it several times — some 
parts of England are becoming almost as lonesome as the veld of 
Africa. There (t the highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth." 
The farm labourer is looked down upon, especially by young 
women of his own class, and consequently looks down upon him- 
self. He is at the very bottom of the social scale. Feeling this, 
and having no hope for the future, nowadays he does not, in the 
majority of instances, even take the trouble to master his business. 
He will not learn the old finer arts of husbandry ; too often he 
does as little as he can, and does that little ill. 

Farming in this country is no longer what it was. In all parts 
of England the land is going more and more to grass, which 
means, of course, that fewer men are needed for its working ; 
while in many places the tendency is towards the division of 
farms, until they reach a size that can conveniently be managed 
by a man with the help of his own children. Also there are always 
a certain number of tramps or drifters who can be hired, to say 
nothing of the industrious Irishmen that visit some of the counties 
in large numbers. 

Therefore, great and damaging as is the present dearth of 
agricultural labour, my own opinion is that more or less it will be 
met in this way or in that, chiefly by the division of holdings, the 
increased use of machinery, the abandonment of the higher class 
of farming and of dairies which necessitate Sunday milking, and 
the laying away of all but the best lands to grass. In short, the 
lack of men will not kill our husbandry, it will only change its 
character for the worse, with the result that much of our soil 
in the future may produce perhaps one-half of what it used to 
produce, and, say, one-third of what it could be made to produce. 

But behind the agricultural question lies the national question. 
What will be the result of this desertion of the countryside and 
of the crowding of its denizens into cities ? That is a point upon 
which it would be easy to indulge in strong words. The evils 
are known, and little imagination is needed to enable a writer to 
paint their disastrous consequence. I will, however, content my- 
self with a moderate statement. It can mean nothing less than 
the progressive deterioration of the race. In the absence of new 



S6o READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

conditions which cannot be foreseen, if unchecked, it may in the 
end mean the ruin of the race. 

Owing principally to the lowness of prices, from whatever 
cause arising, and the lack of labour, I take it to be proved then 
that in the majority of districts English agriculture is a failing 
industry, although at present, in the absence of serious war and 
want, this gradual failure does not appear materially to affect the 
general prosperity of the nation. Yet I maintain it is affecting it, 
not only by the lessening of a home-grown food supply which 
might be vital in the case of a European struggle, but in an even 
more deadly fashion by the withdrawal of the best of its popula- 
tion from the wholesome land into cities which are not wholesome 
for mind or body. 

Will this movement stop ? Many think so. The hopes of 
farmers are built for the most part on a belief, which I find to be 
very widespread, that the trade of the country is threatened with 
imminent disaster which will send people back to the land, or at 
least prevent the migration of any more of them to the towns. 
For my own part I do not believe that anything short of actual 
starvation will cause those who have become accustomed to a city 
life — or, still more, their children — to return to labour on the 
soil even if they were fitted so to do. It is, however, possible that 
those who remain on that soil might be prevented from deserting 
it by the difficulty of obtaining remunerative employment in the 
towns. As the demand for robust country folk is at present enor- 
mous and increasing in every branch of labour — including the 
army, the railways, and the police — that case is, however, purely 
hypothetical. In this connection it must be remembered that the 
unemployed, of whom we hear so much, are not strong-limbed, 
sound-minded rustics, but townsmen of the second or third gen- 
eration who, whatever else they can do, cannot or will not labour 
with their bodies. Therefore it comes to this — while there is 
a demand and trade flourishes the exodus must continue ; and 
at present, with some exceptions, the demand is active and trade 
does flourish. 

The reader may ask, Why should it continue ? There are sev- 
eral answers. Chiefly it is a matter of wages. More money can 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 561 

be earned in the towns ; and even if this means no real advan- 
tage, — if the extra cash is more than absorbed in the extra ex- 
penses, — the average man likes to have the handling of money. 
He does not think of the rent of the squalid rooms, of the cost of 
the tramcars and the music halls ; he does not reck of the time 
when he will begin to grow old and be pushed out of his place by 
some new-comer from the land. Yonder it is thirty shillings ; 
here it is only eighteen. That is what he remembers. So he goes 
to accomplish his destiny, whatever it may be. 

But it is not solely a question of wages ; he and his wife seek 
the change and the excitement of the streets. Nature has little 
meaning for most of them, and no charms ; but they love a gas 
lamp. Nature, in my experience, only appeals to the truly edu- 
cated. Our boasted system* of education seems to make it detest- 
able — a thing to flee from. Lastly, in towns, there is a chance of 
rising ; but in the country, for nineteen out of twenty, there is no 
hope that they will become farmers on their own account. So the 
countryman chooses the town, and as a consequence the character 
of Englishmen appears to be changing, not — as those who have 
observed certain recent scenes, at Waterloo Station and elsewhere, 
may reflect — entirely for the better. 

Before speaking of possible remedies for evils which are gen- 
erally admitted to exist, I wish to allude very briefly to the condi- 
tion of those engaged in agriculture, as I have found it to be. 
Of the three classes connected with the land — the landowner, 
the tenant farmer, and the labourer — I believe that, taking the 
country through, the owner has suffered most. In many counties, 
such as Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, there is often 
nothing at all left for him after the various expenses have been 
met, whereas, if it is in any way encumbered, landed property is 
as a millstone round his neck. In such counties the possession of 
land is becoming, or has already become, a luxury for rich taste for 
sport. Than this no state of affairs can be more unwholesome 
or unnatural ; the land should support men, not men the land. 
Also there are more acres than there are rich folk to buy them. 

In some parts of England, however, the landlords are still 
living on their rents, but where they have no other resource, in 



562 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the vast majority of instances they are much crippled. Against 
this class every hand is raised. If a tenant is pinched, whom 
does he neglect to pay — the tradesman, the lawyer, the banker ? 
No, the landlord. If there is trouble about the collection of tithe, 
on whose shoulders is the burden thrust by Parliament ? Those 
of the landlord. On whom do the death-duties fall the heaviest ? 
The landlord, who cannot discharge them in kind, and often 
enough has nothing else out of which they may be satisfied. 
And so forth. Meanwhile the upkeep of estates is costlier than 
ever it was, since tenants require much in these latter days. 

The farmers, with certain exceptions, in my judgment, do no 
more than make a hard living, and in many instances they are 
actually losing capital. Still, one fact must be remembered which 
farmers themselves are apt to forget — they do, for the most 
part, live, and, in comparison with the rest of the world, not at 
all unpleasantly. They are independent and, where the gentry 
are few, rule the countryside ; moreover with their hire is thrown 
in a house, which often in a town would cost them at' least fifty 
pounds a year, that must be kept in repair by the owner. Fur- 
ther their expenses need be but very small, since a farm actually 
produces much that a farmer's family consumes, and, for the most 
part, they are by no means lavish in their subscriptions, either 
to public or private objects. These are advantages which are well 
understood by many townsmen of the shopkeeping and profes- 
sional classes. It is common to find in some districts that to a 
considerable extent the demand for farms, especially for small 
farms, proceeds from such folk who have saved money and de- 
sire to end their days in the country. They know that if they 
make nothing they will actually lose little on, say, a hundred 
acres of land, of which the buildings must be repaired by some- 
body else, and that the life is wholesome, with many incidental 
advantages. It is often for these reasons that in most counties 
there is still a demand for holdings at the present reduced rents. 
Also farmers can only farm ; they have no other resource or occu- 
pation, so they cling to their business until the end, whatever that 
may be, although often enough they would do better to invest their 
inherited capital and be content to exist upon the interest. 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 563 

Large holdings, however, which require a great deal of capital, 
are everywhere becoming hard to let, since, save in very excep- 
tional instances, farmers cannot hope even to do more than pay 
their rent and make a livelihood. The old days when they could 
save have gone by ; indeed, I believe that a great deal of money 
which was made out of the land in the past is slowly being 
dissipated upon it in the present. 

In short, the industry, speaking generally, is decaying ; but it 
still endures, in spite of bad prices, labour troubles, and indifferent 
seasons. How long it will endure in the absence of some marked 
change for the better is another question. Such a change the 
harvest of 1902 with English wheat at less than 25 s. the quarter, 
a price at which it cannot pay to grow, certainly has not produced. 
That question is one which time alone can answer, but whatever 
happens doubtless the best lands will always find tenants. 

To come to the third class, — that of the labouring men, — 
undeniably they are more prosperous today than ever they have 
been before. Employment is plentiful ; wages, by comparison, are 
high, — in some places higher than the land can afford to pay, — 
food and other necessaries are very cheap. 

In face of these advantages, however, the rural labourer has 
never been more discontented than he is at present. That, in his 
own degree, he is doing the best of the three great classes con- 
nected with the land does not appease him in the least. The dif- 
fusion of newspapers, the system of board school education, and 
the restless spirit of our age have changed him, so that nowadays 
it is his main ambition to escape from the soil where he was bred 
and try his fortune in the cities. This is not wonderful, for there 
are high wages, company, and amusement, with shorter hours of 
work. Moreover, on the land he has no prospects : a labourer he 
is, and in ninety-nine cases out of a' hundred a labourer he must 
remain. Lastly, in many instances, his cottage accommodation is 
very bad ; indeed I have found wretched and insufficient dwell- 
ings to be a great factor in the hastening of the rural exodus ; 
and he forgets that in the town it will probably be worse. 
So he goes, leaving behind him half-tilled fields and shrinking 
hamlets. 



564 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Moreover, even of those young men who remain, but few care to 
become masters of their work. Here is an instance of which I 
have just been told, in September, 1902. The technical com- 
mittee of the Norfolk County Council allotted to Ditchingham and 
a group of three or four other parishes £9 to be given in prizes 
at a ploughing competition. From the whole parish of Ditch- 
ingham with its population of about 1 100 but one man has 
entered — a servant of my own — and from the group of parishes, 
I am informed, not a single lad is forthcoming, although a sum of 
,£3 was set aside to be given as prizes in the boys' ploughing 
class. The fact is, of course, that the youth of this, as of other 
districts, does not wish to learn to plough, even when bribed so to 
do with prizes, and that here, before long, ploughmen, or any 
skilled labourers, will, to all appearances, be scarce indeed. 

To sum up the real causes of this ominous migration of the 
blood and sinew of the race : they are, I take it, first, that the 
peasant has nothing to tie him to the land, on which he is a wage- 
earner without outlook ; secondly, our system of education does 
not allow him to come in actual contact with that land until he is 
too old to learn to love it ; thirdly, in many cases, proper homes 
with good gardens are not provided for him in the villages. Up 
to the seventeenth century I believe that most of the English soil 
was owned by small yeomen, and even by peasants, who in the be- 
ginning acquired it on the condition of the rendering of certain 
services to a feudal lord, which ultimately were compounded for 
by a money fine, thus turning them into copyholders. Even the 
humblest cottager had his four acres of grass or garden about 
his dwelling. 

In time all this was changed : the small-holders were bought 
out and sank into a condition of great misery, being forced to live 
like swine, and as labourers' to take whatever wage was flung to 
them. Doubtless they wished to depart in those days, but there 
was nowhere to go, and no means of going. So they stayed until, 
some thirty years since, their eyes were opened. 

What will suffice to abate the evil — for it is a great and grow- 
ing evil ? Better wages ? In most cases and localities they are 
impossible unless the prices of farm products alter very materially. 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 565 

Better prospects and cottages ? How are these to be provided ? I 
will try to answer the question by the help of the experience which 
I have gathered. It has been said of me that I am "a small- 
holdings man," that I want "to cut up England into small- 
holdings." Well, I am a strong believer in such holdings, with 
sundry important limitations. Who would not be when he has 
found, as undoubtedly I have (of course with exceptions), that 
wherever small-holdings exist in England there is comparative 
prosperity, great love of the soil, and a desire to cultivate it, an 
increasing as compared with a diminishing population, a large 
production of children as compared, at any rate in many instances, 
with a small production of children, and a considerable addition to 
the supply of local labour ? 

But now come the limitations. I desire to state quite clearly I 
do not believe that small-holdings can be artificially created at this 
period of our history. The desire and demand for them must 
spring up among the population ; they cannot be forced upon the 
population with any prospect of success. To take an example, it 
would be useless for the government to provide, say, fifty millions 
of money and bid a department to create small-holdings to that 
value. It would only lose most of its money, and in the end find 
many of the holdings on its hands. Also various districts in 
England, owing to local conditions of soil, markets, and lack of 
means of communication, are not suitable to this class of occupier 
or owner at the present low values of agricultural produce. 

Still, in every county there are men — more, probably, than any 
one imagines — who desire small-holdings, who would work them 
to great advantage to themselves and the State, and, by their 
example, would encourage others to follow in their steps. Parlia- 
ment, recognizing the existence of such men, has, it is true, 
already passed an act — the Small-Holdings Act of 1892 — 
designed to assist them. But the administration of that law has 
been left in the hands of the county councils, who, with the ex- 
ception of those of Worcestershire, of Cambridgeshire on a very 
small scale, and, I think, of one other county — at least I know 
of no others — have allowed its excellent provisions to become a 
dead letter. Unless, therefore, the councils can be moved to take 



566 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

action, or the administration of the act is transferred to the 
Board of Agriculture — a course which would have some dis- 
advantages — for all practical purposes it may be regarded as non- 
existent. How, then, can these men be helped ? By direct 
government aid ? I think not. Such aid pauperises and is foreign 
to our character and traditions. Indirect aid, which enables the 
individual to help himself, is another matter. I propose that it 
should take this form. First, the extension of the provisions of 
the Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890, to enable pub- 
lic bodies and landowners to borrow money from the treasury, 
to whatever extent they may wish, for the erection of both cottages 
and farm buildings sufficient for the purposes of small-holdings, 
at a more rea'sonable rate of interest than is at present charged by 
the loan commissioners. Such interest to be repayable over a 
term of sixty instead of forty years, as at present, and to include 
a provision for a sinking fund which would automatically extin- 
guish the debt at the termination of that period. As it is, the 
great majority of landowners are absolutely unable to afford to put 
up cottages and outbuildings, even when they so desire, without 
which, small-holdings can seldom be multiplied. 

But it is undoubtedly to the interest of the nation that these 
should be multiplied, and still more so that the cottage accom- 
modation of the working classes in rural districts should be im- 
proved. Surely it would not be beyond the resources of financial 
experts to formulate a scheme under which the necessary funds 
might be forthcoming without actual loss to the treasury, or, at 
the worst, at a loss so small that it should not be allowed to weigh 
against the advantage gained. 

Of course I know the answer — that owing to the cost of our 
wars the government itself must pay about 3 per cent for money. 
If this is held to be conclusive, there is nothing more to be said. 
Still, I wish to point out that when millions are so easily forthcom- 
ing for enterprises of the character of the Uganda Railway, which 
is not likely to prove a remunerative investment, or to assist Boers, 
who have brought their troubles on their own heads, it is hard 
that help should be withheld from such home schemes as I have 
suggested on the ground that, commercially, they might not pay. 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 567 

But, it may be said, supposing that the government were to 
make such advances, where is the little farmer's working capital 
to come from ? Is the government to lend him that also ? This 
is not my notion. Some of it he must find out of his own means 
or savings ; the rest he should be able to borrow, not from the 
government, but from co-operative credit banks, to be established 
and controlled by the Board of Agriculture, working, perhaps, 
in conjunction with, or through the existing co-operative banks 
association. I believe firmly, that under proper and sympathetic 
management they might prove a very powerful factor in the 
resurrection of the departed class of British yeomen, and there- 
fore in keeping population on the land. The splendid work they 
have done on the Continent is known to all. Why should it not 
be repeated in England ? 

Still, such banks would need a powerful and authoritative start, 
and that start, I submit with humility, should be given by the 
government, acting through the Board of Agriculture. Some 
money might be wanted at the beginning, possibly half a million ; 
but if we may judge by the Continental experience, given good 
direction, there is little fear that one halfpenny of this advance 
would be lost to the treasury. From these banks deserving men, 
whom their fellows approve and are responsible for, could borrow 
on the well-known and tested system, with the result, I am con- 
vinced, that numbers who now have no means of so doing would 
be able to establish themselves as small farmers. Not many, it 
is true, could buy their land ; that, where it was desired, might 
come later with their success. 

Indeed, although I should like to see the land in more hands 
than it is at present, I think that in England. the small-holder is, 
on the whole, better off as a tenant than as an owner. In the 
first case his capital is all available to stock his farm, and though 
an owner is free from rent, too often, as I have shown in this 
work, he has to meet a heavier burden in the shape of interest on 
money borrowed upon the security of his freehold. This subject 
might be written of at much greater length, but I leave it here. 

Before doing so, however, I wish to make it quite clear that I 
do not desire that all England should be cut up into these little 



568 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

tenancies or ownerships (as once much of it must have been), 
since England is large, and in it there is room for every kind of 
estate and holding. I do, however, desire to see small-holdings 
indefinitely multiplied, for they produce a splendid class of men, 
of which soon the country is likely to be much in need. More- 
over, it looks very much as though ere long there may be but two 
payable classes of farming : ( I ) that which is worked by capital- 
ists on a large scale, with the aid of machinery for arable, and of 
great herds of stock for pastoral lands ; (2) that which is worked 
by the small-holder on suitable land and in the near neighbour- 
hood of markets, with the aid of his own hands and family. 

Of this, at least, I am almost sure. Men will not return from, 
they will not even cease to go to the towns, in order to become 
day labourers on the land. But they will, in many instances, cling 
to that land if their lives there can be made more pleasant, 
especially if they can be given the interest of property in or on its 
acres. In short, they will do for their own what they will not do 
for another's, even though the actual gain be small and the life 
hard. So, at least, I have found it in many places. 

There remains the question of rural education. It is generally 
admitted, — myself I have heard it from the mouths of many com- 
petent witnesses, as readers of this book will know, — that our 
present system is a town system, and tends to turn people to the 
towns. Agricultural classes have, it is true, been introduced, with 
lessons in botany and other expedients, but, as I gather, with small 
appreciable effect. The lad who is expected to deal with the land 
and with animals ought to become practically acquainted with them 
before he is twelve years old, otherwise, in the great majority of 
cases, he will dislike the one and fear the other. How, then, is 
this to be effected ? The answer is, as in the case of the credit 
banks, by going abroad for an example. 

In various Continental countries — also, I believe, in some of 
the Australasian colonies — I understand that the school children 
are allowed out to work on the land in summer and kept to their 
books in winter. Why cannot this system, with whatever local 
modifications may be found necessary, be adopted in England ? 
Some may reply, Because the country does not wish its youth to be 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 569 

kept in the rural districts ; it desires that they should be attracted 
to the towns, there to supply cheap labor. If that is so, here, 
again, nothing more can be said, except that in the opinion of 
many this is the shortest road to national disaster. 

I urge with all earnestness that the matter is one which needs 
impartial investigation. Educational theories may be pushed too 
far, especially when the theorists and the teachers are townsfolk 
unacquainted with the needs and conditions of the land, and 
quite careless or ignorant of the ultimate issues of its impoverish- 
ment and depopulation. 

■?& & & 7& "Sfe ¥fc *$& 7^ 3fe "Sfe 

To recapitulate, then, as one who has made an earnest and 
prolonged study of these questions, on behalf of the thousands 
who think as I do, I ask six things of the government, not 
only in the interests of rural England, but of Great Britain as 
a whole : 

1. That it will extend the provisions of the Housing of the 
Working Classes Act in some such fashion as is suggested above. 

2. That it will place a minimum sum of half a million at the 
disposal of the Board of Agriculture to be, as regards one moiety, 
loaned out by the said board to co-operative credit societies work- 
ing under its control or supervision, in order to enable them to 
start, or to extend their operations. As regards the other moiety, 
to be employed for the advance of moneys upon such terms as 
may be found safe and reasonable, to be used in the establishment 
in suitable places of co-operative milk and butter factories. 

3. That in view of the very serious state of affairs revealed by 
the report of the Royal Commission on Local Taxation, and the 
ever-increasing burden which is being heaped on real property 
that grows daily less able to bear it, the government will at once 
introduce legislation to enforce the conclusions of the said report. 
This might be done by charging sums spent on account of the 
nation to the nation at large, instead of leaving them to be borne 
to the extent of, I believe, over 82 per cent by the owners and 
occupiers of real property. 

4. That it will deal with the questions, among others, of the 
abolition of copyhold and of the cheapening of land transfer. 



570 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

5. That it will greatly strengthen the powers and position of 
the Board of Agriculture and its president. 

6. (By far the greatest and most far-reaching of the remedies 
that I have to propose.) That so soon as may be feasible it 
will establish an agricultural post, to be worked as a branch of 
the present post office and, as nearly as proves prapticable, upon 
the lines of the existing parcel post. Packages to be carried by 
this post not to exceed one hundred pounds in weight until the 
scheme is further developed in a way of which I shall speak 
presently. All classes of agricultural goods, however, including 
milk in churns, to be conveyed by the said post at the lowest 
rates that are found possible without loss to the country. Should 
the experiment prove both useful and self-supporting, as I am 
convinced that it would ultimately do, it might in the future be 
much extended so as to deal with goods in bulk by means of 
traction-trains which would collect the said goods at local receiv- 
ing stations and deliver them in the large towns, or at any other 
receiving station. 

Such traction-trains, I believe, could be worked very eco- 
nomically. Thus, Mr. B. J. Diplock has invented a new traction 
engine running on substitutes for ordinary wheels that he calls 
"pedrails," which, it is said, after allowing for depreciation, 
repairs, other expenses, etc., will transport goods at 75 per cent 
less than the rates commonly charged by English railways. For 
the details of what seems to me, after inspecting the models, 
to be a very remarkable invention, I must refer the reader to 
Mr. Diplock's recent book, "A New System of Heavy Goods 
Transport on Common Roads" (Longmans). Whether or no this 
scheme will prove a commercial and practical success, of course 
I cannot say ; but even if it does not, without doubt others will 
appear. My point is that eventually an agricultural post such as 
I propose, might by the aid of road traction be so extended as 
to deal with produce in bulk. 

********** 

When we turn to the question of the decrease in the inhab- 
itants of English rural districts, it is to find ourselves confronted 
with some startling figures. I read that in 185 1 the agricultural 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 571 

labourers of England and Wales numbered 1,253,800 and that in 
1 89 1 they had shrunk to about 780,700. What the census of 1901 
shows their number to be I do not yet know, but I shall be much 
surprised if it records any advance. Taking it on the 1891 basis, 
however, it would seem that whereas between 185 1 and 1891 
the population of England and Wales had increased by about a 
half, its agricultural inhabitants during this same period had 
actually decreased by over one-third, with the result that whereas 
in 1 89 1 the urban districts could show a total of about 25,000,000 
people, the rural districts held only about 7,500,000, that is, some 
23 per cent of the population, as against 7 7 per cent living in 
towns or their immediate neighborhood. These figures are very 
eloquent and very ominous, especially if a careful analysis of those 
of the last census should prove them to be progressive in the 
same directions. 

In days that are quite recent, as the remarkable Necton docu- 
ment quoted in my chapter on Norfolk shows, folk were haunted 
by an absolute terror of the over-peopling of the rural districts. 
Now they suffer from a very different fear. The plethoric population- 
bogey of 1830 has been replaced by the lean exodus-skeleton of 
1902. People are deserting the villages wholesale, leaving behind 
them the mentally incompetent and the physically unfit ; nor, at 
any rate in many parts of England, — although* in this matter 
East Anglia is perhaps better off than are most other districts, — 
does the steady flow to the cities show signs of ceasing. Yet — and 
this is one of the strangest circumstances connected with the 
movement — those cities whither they go are full of misery. Dis- 
ease, wretchedness, the last extremes of want, and the ultimate 
extinction of their families will be the lot of at least a large 
proportion of these immigrants. Has not this been shown by 
Mr. Rowntree and others ? 

On the other hand, low as the wages are, it is not too much 
to say that in the country, or at least in that large area of it with 
which I am acquainted, there is in practice but little real poverty. 
Cases of misfortune there are, and always must be, together with 
cases of accidents and cases — of these a great number — where 
the drunkenness or other ill-behaviour of the breadwinner has 



572 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

brought whole families to wreck. But want, actual want of food 
for the stomach, of clothing for the back, and of shelter for the 
head, such as stalks abroad through the poorer parts of great 
cities, is rare today in rural England. There are those who for 
this cause or for that fall into its clutches but who can generally 
find a friend to help them, in nine cases out of ten the despised 
parson or the much-abused squire. 

I know no better test of well-being than the appearance of the 
children of a locality. Now I venture to assert that any observer 
who stood at the gates of Ditchingham School, or of those of 
some neighbouring parish, and watched the pupils coming out to 
play, would find them as well and sufficiently clothed, as well 
fed, and in general of as happy and healthy an appearance, as 
it is possible for children of their class to be. If, however, he 
took the train to some great city and repeated- his observations 
at the door of a large board school, would he be able to say as 
much ? In short, even for the very poorest, life in the country 
has not those horrors that in towns must be its constant com- 
panion. We complain, and rightly, of the state of our cottages ; 
but after all, how many cases of consumption are there in them, 
and how, for young or old, do the rural tables of mortality com- 
pare with those of towns ? Is it possible in a village for such a 
thing as this to happen ? A lady known to the writer was dis- 
trict-visiting, I think in London, and in a tenement of one room 
found a woman nursing some children sick with I forget what com- 
plaint. Presently this poor creature opened the door of a cupboard 
and showed her the bodies of two more of her offspring which she 
had thrust away thus because there was nowhere else to put them. 

Still for such homes as these, and perhaps to fates as dreadful, 
people flock from their wholesome, happy villages, where their 
labour at least brings health and in most cases sufficiency, to the 
towns where they believe that they are certain of higher wages 
and more amusement. A while ago I met a man, evidently an 
agricultural labourer, walking down the Strand and literally weep- 
ing. It appeared on investigation that he had come up with his 
family from some rural district in the hope of "bettering" him- 
self. The result was that at the time of our meeting he and 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 573 

they were learning by sharp experience the meaning of the word 
starvation. I have often wondered what became of that man, or 
if he took my advice to get him back to the country as quickly 
as he might. 

But, as I have said, such examples do not deter those who 
want to go, who are young and strong and forget the day when 
they will be grey-headed and turned from door to door. They 
think that they will be among the fortunate ; that they will not 
find themselves sick and friendless in the ward of a London hos- 
pital ; that their children will develop no disease in the crowded 
slums. Or perhaps they do not think even so much as this. 
They are weary of their lack of outlook and of working the fields 
that their forefathers worked before them for hundreds of years, 
and do not reflect that in this pursuit, humble as it seems, there 
is in truth great dignity ; weary also of the control of village 
opinion and of the dulness of village life. Education has taught 
them to dislike manual labour, which they look down on ; while 
newspapers, and friends who have been successful there, tell 
them of the glories and high wages of the town, of the music 
halls and the beautiful processions. 

So they go, and it is hard to blame them. But what will be 
the result upon England at large — indeed what is the result 
already ? Again, I ask, can it be denied that the national tem- 
perament is undergoing modifications subtle perhaps, but none 
the less profound ? To " maffick " is a very modern verb, but one 
of which the significance is daily widening. Moreover, the phy- 
sique deteriorates. This was a fact that came home to any who, 
after the country-bred yeomen were exhausted, took the trouble 
to compare with them the crowds of town-reared men that pre- 
sented themselves at the London recruiting offices to volunteer 
for service in South Africa. The intelligence too is changed ; it 
is apt no longer to consider or appreciate natural things, but by 
preference dwells on and occupies itself with those more artificial 
joys and needs which are the .creation of civilized, money- and 
pleasure-seeking man. 

I am convinced — and this is a very important national aspect 
of the question — that most of our reverses during the recent 



574 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

war were due to the pitting of town-bred bodies and intelligences, 
both of officers and men, against country-bred bodies and intelli- 
gences. We laugh at the Boer for his rude manners and his 
rusticity, but therein lies a strength which if he and his people 
are wise they will not exchange for all the gold and gems in 
Africa and all the most exquisite refinements of Europe. If they 
can resist those temptations (which for our sake it is to be hoped 
that they will not do) ; if they can continue to be content to 
live roughly upon their farms and produce as many children as 
nature gives them, then I am sure — unless we British change 
our ways — that whatever flag flies over it, within two generations 
its inhabitants of Dutch blood will, in fact, rule South Africa. 
Moreover, having that vast country in which to develop, within 
ten generations they will, I believe, be one of the great powers 
of the world. For in Africa the Englishman does what he does 
in Britain, forsakes his farm for the city, where there is more 
life, and more money to be made. 

********** 

I have now tried to set forth generally what has been already 
chronicled in much detail in these volumes, that the agricultural 
interests in England are in no flourishing condition. I have 
pointed out that, chiefly owing to the low wage which is all that 
the land can pay them and their lack of prospects, the labouring 
classes are in great numbers deserting the country for the towns, 
where they hope, often vainly enough, to better their fortunes. 
I have shown also in these pages that the race of yeomen is 
becoming extinct, and that of the owners of land very much 
impoverished. Further I have drawn the conclusion that these 
unnatural developments are of most evil omen for the welfare of 
our country, and have ventured to suggest several remedies (out- 
side of protection, which I look upon as impracticable), whereby 
they may be, if not arrested, at the least palliated. Can this be 
done ? I can only answer that I think so — that at least as 
much has been done in other lands. 



V. THE FARMER'S BUSINESS 

SOME IMPORTANT FACTORS FOR SUCCESS IN 
GENERAL FARMING AND IN DAIRY FARMING 

By Professor G. F. Warren, Cornell University 

(From Bulletin No. 349, College of Agriculture. Cornell University) 

INTRODUCTION 

FOR eight yearns the Department of Farm Management has been 
studying farms in order to learn why some farms pay better 
than others. Records have been obtained from 6 townships in 
Tompkins County, 5 townships in northern Livingston County, 
and 5 townships in Jefferson County. Records have also been 
obtained for a considerable number of farms in different parts of 
the state, in all 2743 farms. In addition to these records used 
for systematic study, probably over 1000 records have been 
made out for their home farms by students in this department. 
These have not been tabulated, but are in accord with the prin- 
ciples here given. Similar work has been done in 14 other 
states. So far as the work in other states has been published 
and so far as the writer has heard it discussed in lectures, the 
same principles are shown to apply. 

Distinction between a successfid farm and a successful farmer. 
Profitable farms are usually not readily told by casual observation. 
A farmer who is not in debt may have a well-kept place and be 
living well, but not be making interest on his capital. His farm 
may make a good home, but it cannot be called a good business 
unless it pays interest on the capital invested and good wages for 
the farmer's labor. Another farmer who is in debt for his place 
and who has to pay interest may be running a much more suc- 
cessful farm and yet have little money left over for good living. 

575 



576 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Not infrequently the owner of a very profitable farm fails to accu- 
mulate money. On the other hand, the owner of a farm that does 
not pay any labor income may save money. 

The distinction between a successful farm and a successful 
farmer is well illustrated by a farmer in one of the counties studied. 
The farm is very successful, but the owner drinks and wastes all 
that he gets. The neighbors do not consider his farm to be suc- 
cessful, because the owner is not accumulating any money, and 
they do not distinguish closely between a profitable farm and a 
thrifty individual. This man's farm is very successful. It is no 
fault of the system of farming that the money is wasted. The 
farm produces the money. In other cases, a farmer may spend 
his profits in educating his children and fail to accumulate money 
as fast as a neighbor who makes less from his farm but who 
saves all he gets. 

Financial success for an individual depends on spending less 
than one receives. A farm is a financial success when it pays a 
good rate of interest on the capital invested in addition to good 
wages to the operator. 

A way of measuring the success of a farm. Labor income 
defined. In order to compare different farms it is necessary to 
have a way of measuring profit. The most "accurate way of com- 
paring is on the basis of labor income, or farmer's wages. Labor 
income is the amount of money that the farmer has left after 
paying all business expenses of the farm and deducting 5 per 
cent for' interest on the money invested in the farm business. 

An illustration of the method of figuring may make the point 
clear. The averages for farms in Jefferson County are shown in 
Table 1. The average capital on these farms was $9006. This 
includes land, buildings, stock, machinery, tools, feed and seed on 
April 1, and cash to run the farm. The average receipts for the 
year were $1890. Any unsold products or increase in animals is 
counted as a receipt/ The average expenses were $735. This 
includes all business or farm expenses. It does not include any 
personal expenses, but includes the value of board furnished to 
hired help. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 577 

TABLE 1. AVERAGES. 670 FARMS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, 
NEW YORK 

Average capital $9006 

Average receipts 1890 

Average business expenses 735 

Receipts less expenses 11 55 

Interest at 5 per cent 450 

Income from unpaid labor 705 

Value of unpaid labor except owner's .... 96 

Labor income 609 

The difference between receipts and expenses averaged $1155. 

This $1155 was earned by the farmer's money and the work 
of the family. Money can readily be loaned on farm mortgages 
at 5 per cent. Hence, only $705 can be said to have been earned 
by the labor of the farmer and his family. The unpaid farm labor 
by members of the family would have cost about $96 if it had been 
hired, therefore the average farmer really earned $609 as wages 
for his own work. This we call his labor income. Hired men in 
this region get about $400, house rent, and some farm products. 
If a farmer's labor income is less than this, he may as well lend 
his money and hire out. 

The term " labor income " is readily understood by farmers, 
because it is directly comparable with hired man's wages when the 
hired man gets a house, a garden, and some farm products. It is 
not so readily understood by persons in the city. Such persons 
usually assume that the purpose of this work is to show that 
farmers either are, or are not, getting rich too fast. The purpose 
of this work is to determine why some farms pay better than 
others. The aim" is to compare farms with farms, not to com- 
pare farms with the city. If one wished to make such a compari- 
son he should have no more difficulty in comparing labor income 
with city wages than he has in comparing farm wages for married 
men with city wages. In either case, the person on the farm 
receives house rent and some farm products in addition to the 
labor income, or wages. The object of calculating labor income 



578 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

is to have a basis for comparing different farms. It serves this 
purpose most excellently. 1 

The man as a factor in success. It is frequently stated that 
success depends on the man. To some persons this seems a full 
and satisfactory explanation. But it explains nothing. It merely 
dodges the question. Success cannot come from merely being a 
genius. Success comes from doing certain things. The farmer 
does not sell himself. He sells milk, potatoes, hay, apples. It is 
such things as cost of production, amount sold, and price that 
determine his profits. The only way that a good farmer can 
express himself is by doing certain things. These things are fairly 
easy of analysis. If one farmer sprays his apples and another does 
not, it is the arsenic that kills the worms. Any other person can 
duplicate the result by spraying in the same way. If one farmer 
succeeds because he has better cows than another, this success 
can be duplicated. Certainly some persons will succeed where 
others fail, because they do things differently. Just what are the 
differences in method of procedure ? 

Many of the limiting factors are natural forces over which the 
farmer has little, if any, control. Other limiting factors that are 
not personality are prices, roads, freight rates, capital, and the like. 
These limit what can be done by the best, as well as by the 
poorest, farmer. With large numbers of records, it is possible to 
determine with a fair degree of accuracy the influence that each 
of the different factors has on profits. Any part of a farmer's 
success that is due to his acts can as readily be determined when 
large numbers of farms are studied. (See diagram, p. 585, and 

1 Business men sometimes question why the value of the farmer's labor is not 
deducted and interest calculated, rather than deducting interest and calculating 
labor. In our first two years of work, we made calculations both ways. But with 
such small investments as some farmers have, the interest figure often means 
nothing. If a farmer has a capital of $2000 and makes $600 above his farm 
expenses, his labor income is $500. If we assume that his labor is worth $400 at 
farm wages, then he has made 10 per cent interest. Another farmer with $20,000 
capital, whose farm receipts exceed the expenses by $2000, makes a labor income 
of $1000. If the labor that he does is considered to be worth $400, he makes 8 
per cent interest. If all farmers had capitals of $20,000 to $50,000, so that inter- 
est would be a larger item than labor, the interest method of figuring might be con- 
sidered. Another reason why labor income is preferable is that we know what 
money is worth. It is much more difficult to assign a value to the farmer's labor. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 579 

discussion of it.) The confusion is increased by failure to distinguish 
between a successful farm and a successful individual, as has already 
been pointed out. 

What are the differences in natural conditions, and what are 
the ways in which the organization and management of successful 
farms differ from the natural advantages and management of less 
successful ones ? 

Factors affecting profits. There are hundreds of things that 
have some effect on profits, but many of these can make only a 
slight difference. There are many other factors that set absolute 
limits to the profits. Of these important factors, a few stand out 
as .the prominent ones on the vast majority of farms. From a long 
study of this question, it is found that the factors that most 
frequently determine whether the profits are poor, good, or excel- 
lent are the size of the business, the diversity of the business, the 
crop yields, and the production per animal. For general farms, 
the labor income can be placed in the correct group in about 80 
per cent of the cases, if one knows the area of crops grown, the 
yields of these crops, the receipts per cow or other important 
animal; and the percentage of the total receipts that come from 
cash crops. In other words, these four are the most important 
factors that control profits in farming. 

Of two farms that have practically the same area of crops, same 
yields, same receipts per cow, and same proportion of receipts 
from animals, one may have a labor income of $600 and the other 
$800. Many other minor factors produce these small variations. 
Rarely do we find farms that are alike in the four factors men- 
tioned above and that have such differences as $600 and $2000 
in labor income. There are, of course, many factors that might 
cause such a difference, but in actual experience the fact is that 
they do not often do it. None of these conclusions were derived 
by theory. They were found by sorting records of farms in many 
ways and examining the results. The writer would have arrived 
at entirely different conclusions from theory. It must also be 
remembered that the records include all farms in the regions 
studied, with the exceptions noted on page 584. They are not 
selected in any way. 



580 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



SIZE OF BUSINESS 

Ways of measuring size. There are many ways of measuring 
size of business. Farms may be compared as to the amount of 
capital invested, number of men kept, number of cows or other 
animals, number of work animals, acres of land, or acres of crops 
grown. So long as we are dealing with fairly uniform conditions, 
each of these comparisons gives about the same average results. 
If comparisons are made between widely different types of farm- 
ing, as between truck growing and general farming, then capital 
is the best measure of size. 

Relation of capital to profits. Very few farmers who use less 
than $5000 worth of capital are making good labor incomes. 
With a fair amount of capital, it is easier to make wages and 
interest on the larger capital than to make wages and the smaller 
interest on a small capital. The capital need not all be owned. 
Part or all of the land may be rented, or the land may be owned 
but mortgaged. Results in Bulletin 295 of this station agree with 
this, as they do with all the results in this bulletin. The relation 
of capital to profits is shown by Table 2 below, and Tables 3 and 
4 on the next page. 

TABLE 2. CAPITAL RELATED TO LABOR INCOME. 578 FARMS, 
NORTHERN LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Capital 



Number 


Average 


of Farms 


Labor Income 


87 


$291 


80 


407 


112 


480 


164 


769 


62 


IOO I 


55 


1062 


18 


1691 



$5000 or less . 
$500 1 -$7500 . 
$7 50 1 -$10,000 
$io,ooi-$i 5,000 

$I5,OOI-$20,000 
$20,OOI-$30,000 

Over $30,000 . 



The reason why tenants and part owners make more than 
owners, as shown in Table 4, is because with a given capital they 
have a larger business. A tenant who has $3000 may rent a farm 
worth $15,000 and be running a business many times larger than 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



5 8l 



can an owner who has only $3000. Any factor that enables the 
farm operator to get control of more capital results in much larger 
profits on the average. i 



TABLE 3. RELATION OF CAPITAL TO PROFITS. 578 FARMS, 
NORTHERN LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Capital 



Per Cent of 

Farmers Making 

Labor Incomes 

of over $1000 



$5000 or less . 
$5001^7500 . 
$7 50 1 -$10,000 
$io,ooi-$i 5,000 
$15,001-^20,000 
$20,00 1 -$30,000 
Over $30,000 . 



7 

11 
16 

33 
46 
5i 

50 



TABLE 4. RELATIVE OPPORTUNITIES WITH A GIVEN CAPITAL, 
AS OWNER, PART OWNER, AND TENANT, NORTHERN LIVING- 
STON COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Owners Operating 


Owners Renting 






their Own Land only 


Additional Land 






Capital of Operator 


Number 


Average 


Number 


Average 


Number 


Average 




of 


labor 


of 


labor 


of 


labor 




farms 


income 


farms 


income 


farms 


income 


$1000 or less . . . 


O 









20 


$368 


$IOOI-$2000 . 






3 


#38 


O 




65 


481 


$200I-$3000 . 






IO 


8l 


8 


#145 


54 


6lO 


$300 1 -$4000 . 






16 


195 


9 


462 


27 


626 


$400 1 -$5000 . 






23 


347 


7 


570 


16 


869 


$500 1 -$7500 . 






46 


355 


14 


485 








$75oi-$io,ooo 






62 


400 


19 


583 


More 






$io,ooi-$i 5,000 






75 


694 


19 


705 


than 


(►22 


1282 


$I5,OOI-$20,000 






28 


935 


3 


IOI8 


$5000 






Over $20,000 . 






29 


1412 


3 


2269 


- 







The farmers with a given capital who have borrowed money so 
as to enlarge their business are, on the average, doing better than 
those who are not in debt. The results for one capital group in 
Jefferson County are given in Table 5. The farmers who were 



582 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



able to have larger farms because they borrowed money were 
making much better labor incomes than were those who farmed 
only as much land as they could pay for. 

TABLE 5. EFFECT ON PROFITS OF ENLARGING THE FARM WITH 

BORROWED CAPITAL. FARMS WITH AN OWNED CAPITAL OF 

$5000 TO $10,000, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Number of farms 

Average capital owned . . . 
Average capital borrowed . . 
Average size of farms (acres) 
Average labor income . . . 




Farms not Mortgaged 



6 4 

$6952 

$2281 

141 

$665 



The same point is shown for each county in each capital group 
up to $15,000. With a given owned capital of less than $5000, 
those who use their money to farm as tenants are making the 
most. The next most profitable way to use this amount of money 
is to buy a farm larger than the money will pay for, leave the bal- 
ance on mortgage, and then rent additional land. The least profit- 
able way of using this sum of money is to buy and equip a farm 
so small that one is not in debt, and then not rent any land. 

Those persons who owned over $15,000 worth of property and 
who were not in debt made a little more than those who went in 
debt for additional property. This amount of capital gave them 
farms of 237 acres in Jefferson County and of 230 acres in 
Livingston County. This agrees with the discussion on size of 
farm in the following pages, where it is shown that if one has a 
small farm, additional acreage is of very great importance, but that 
after 200 acres is passed more land may be desirable but is not 
so necessary. 

One important point not shown in Table 4 is the profit due to 
rise in land values. If land is likely to rise in price, it may pay a 
tenant to invest his money in land even though his labor income 
is much lower than it might be as a tenant. Rising land values 
are not included in labor income. Ways of farming with small 
capital are discussed in Bulletin 295 of this station. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



583 



Similar results for three other states are given in Bulletin 41 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, pp. 19-22. In 
these states — Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana — more capital is re- 
quired because the land is higher in price, but the same principles 
are shown to hold. 

Relation of size of farm to profits. Tables 6 and 7 and diagrams 
on pages 585 and 586 show the relation of size of farm to profits. 

TABLE 6. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO LABOR INCOME. 
1988 FARMS, TOMPKINS, LIVINGSTON, AND JEFFERSON COUN- 
TIES, NEW YORK 



Acres 



Number 
of Farms 



Average 

Number of 

Acres per 

Farm 



Average 
Labor 
Income 



30 or less 

31-50 • 
51-100 . 
101-150 . 
151-200 . 
Over 200 



74 
141 
616 

572 
3°4 
281 



22 

44 

79 

126 

177 

281 



$121 
252 
402 
568 
776 
995 



TABLE 7. VARIATIONS IN LABOR INCOMES WITH DIFFERENT 

SIZES OF FARMS. 1988 FARMS, TOMPKINS, LIVINGSTON, AND 

JEFFERSON COUNTIES, NEW YORK 



Acres 



Per Cent of Farms of Each Size Making Labor Incomes 
as Designated 



Less 
than $1 



*i to 
$500 



$501 to 



$1001 to 

$1500 



$1501 to 
$2500 



Over 

$2500 



30 or less 
3!-5o • ■ 
51-100 . 
101-150 . 
151-200 . 
Over 200 



70 
62 

55 
3S 

3 1 

20 



o 
3 

5 

T 3 
22 

20 



These tables include all the farms in Tompkins, Livingston, and 
Jefferson counties for which records were obtained, except twenty-six 



584 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

highly specialized truck farms, one farm of a poultry fancier, one 
certified-milk farm, and two farms devoted wholly to grazing. 
A number of farms were also omitted because the owner derived 
a very large part of his income from buying and selling live- 
stock, keeping boarders, or some other outside labor. Farms that 
sold a large amount of lumber were also omitted because this is 
not an annual crop. Some farms were omitted because they were 
on the edge of towns where the land values were excessive. Such 
farms are more in the real-estate business than in farming. The 
truck farms will be considered later. 

Most of the farms here included are rather general farms. On 
the majority of these, dairy cows are the chief live-stock interest, 
but many of them kept only a few cows. Some kept sheep. All 
kept some hens, and a few kept several hundred. The crop sales 
are varied. The most common crops sold were hay, potatoes, 
apples, cabbage, beans, wheat. Many other crops were sold from 
some farms. Nearly all the farms raise hay and oats to feed. 
Some raised corn for grain. Those that kept many cows usually 
had silos. The types of farming are representative of perhaps 
90 per cent of the New York farms. Some of the farmers sold 
truck, but highly specialized truck farms are not included, nor 
are farms that derived much income from greenhouses included. 
When comparing farms on the acre basis, it would, of course, be 
misleading to include truck farms and greenhouses with general 
farms and dairy farms. 

The average farmer with 30 acres or less of land made $121 
for his year's wages. The average farmer with over 200 acres 
made over eight times as much. Of the 74 who farmed 30 
acres or less; only two made over $500. One of these made a 
labor income of $534. He sold considerable truck, and probably 
should not have been included with general farms. The other 
made a labor income of $511. He hired out as a farm hand for 
nine months, and raised potatoes, eggs, and some milk to sell. 

Of the farms of 50 acres or less, only 4 made labor incomes 
as high as $1000. One had a 40-acre farm, combined bees with 
general farming, and made most of his money on honey. His 
labor income was $1001. Another had a 40-acre general farm 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



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READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



200 






22 44 



79 



126 

ACRES 



177 



281 



Relation of size of farm to labor income on 1988 farms. With a small area 
additional acres increase the labor income very rapidly, but with over 177 acres 
additional land is not so important. Another 100 acres added to a farm of 79 
acres increases the labor income by nearly $400, but a second 100 acres further 
increases it by only a little over $200 

that he ran in addition to hauling milk every day in the year. 
His labor income was $1042. Most of his money came from 
hauling milk. Another made a labor income of $1051 from a 
40-acre farm by retailing milk. The fourth made $1159 from 
a 50-acre general farm. He had a good crop of cabbage, which 
sold for $22 per ton. It will be seen that each of these had 
unusual conditions. 

Of the farms of less than 30 acres, only 2 made over $500, 
but 68 per cent of the farms of over 200 acres made more than 
this amount and 24 per cent made over $1000. The average for 
the farms of over 200 acres was $995. 

The results given in Table 6 are shown in the diagram above. 
This shows how rapidly the labor income increases with the 
size of farm. The shape of the curve also shows that additional 
area is of great importance up to 177 acres, but that after this 
it is of less importance. Adding 100 acres to a 177-acre farm 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 587 

increases the labor income about half as much as it does when 
added to a 79-acre farm. 

These results are in no way local in their application. Similar 
studies in New Hampshire have shown the same results. A study 
of 277 farms in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana showed the same 
relationship between size of farm and profits. The farmers with 
less than 160 acres of land made very poor labor incomes. 1 

Tenants on the larger farms are also making very much more 
than those on the smaller farms. The percentage received by the 
landlord is about the same with different sizes of farms (Bulle- 
tin 295 of this station, p. 417). The reason is that the tenant 
furnishes machinery, horses, and labor, and these are the chief 
items on which a saving is made by having a large farm. 

Relation of size of farm to efficiency in the use of labor. In 
every county studied, the small farms accomplish much less per 
man than do the fair-sized farms. Table 8 gives results for Jeffer- 
son County. The average number of men per farm as given in the 
table includes all human labor. Work of women and children is 
expressed in terms of the number of men that would have been 
required to do the same work. On the smallest farms very little 
work was done by any one except the operator. On the farms of 
over 200 acres, the hired labor and labor by members of the family 
amounted to the time of one and one-third men, or, counting the 
time of the farmer, these farms had the equivalent of 2.35 men. 

In making comparisons of farms, it is necessary to have some 
basis for comparing the different kinds of animals. One horse, 
cow, or bull is called an animal unit. Two head of young stock 
are counted as one animal unit. Seven sheep, 14 lambs, 5 hogs, 
10 pigs, 100 chickens, are each counted as an animal unit. 2 

The farms of less than 30 acres had an average of 3.5 animal 
units per farm besides work horses. Those of over 200 acres had 
an average of 34.2 animal units besides work horses. 

The producing enterprises on the farm are the acres of crops 
grown and the animals other than horses. The horses do not 

1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 75, pp. 11-16; U.S. 
Dept. Agr., Bulletin 41, pp. 24-29. 

2 Cornell University Agr. Exp. Station, Bulletin 295, p. 473. 



588 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



often contribute to the income. Even if colts are raised, they 
usually decrease the cost of horse labor rather than actually add to 
the income. 

•The acres of crops grown, the yields of these crops, the num- 
ber of producing animals and the production of these animals are 
a measure of the amount that is being accomplished on a farm. 
The crop yields and the production of animals are no better on 
the small farms than on the large farms, hence the acres of crops 
and animals kept are a fairly accurate measure of the amount ac- 
complished. The acres of crops raised per man varied from 13 
on the small farms to 57 on the largest farms. The number of 
animal units per man varied from 3 on the small farms to 15 on 
the largest farms (Table 8). , 

TABLE 8. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO EFFICIENCY IN THE 
USE OF LABOR. 670 FARMS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Acres 


Average 

Man 


Average 
Acres of 


Average 

Number of 

Animal 


Acres of 
Crops 


Animal 

Units except 

Horses 




Equivalent 


Crops 


Units except 


per Man 








Work Horses 






30 or less .... 


I.04 


14 


3-5 


J 3 


3 


3!-5° 


1. 18 


25 


7-9 


21 


7 


51-100 


i-34 


40 


13.2 


30 


10 


101-150 


1.61 


66 


19.4 


41 


12 


151-200 


1.98 


89 


25.1 


45 


13 


Over 200 .... 


2-35 


134 


34-2 


57 


15 



Relation of size of farm to work done. From cost accounts 
and other records, we know approximately how much time it takes 
to do each kind of farm work under normal conditions. The 
raising of an oat crop ordinarily takes 15 to 25 hours of man 
labor and 20 to 40 hours of horse labor per acre. With anything 
like efficient methods of work, 20 hours of man labor and 30 
hours of horse labor per acre is sufficient. Many New York 
farmers do better than this. We may therefore say that an oat 
crop represents 2 days of man work and 3 days of horse work. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



589 



As in doing any kind of work, some persons do it in less 
and some in more time. If much more time than this is spent, 
the work is not efficiently done. This may be because the fields 
are too small, because of poor machinery, because the land is un- 
usually hard to work, or for other reasons. It matters not why 
time is lost. If it is lost, the farm is not efficient. 

Similarly the average farmer spends about 150 hours of work 
per year on a cow. If the barn or pasture is unhandy, or if he 
has only a half-dozen cows, more time may be required. Some 
farmers who get good returns spend less time. To care for a cow 
for a year may be counted as about 1 5 days' work. 

In order to compare farms, all the productive enterprises are 
similarly expressed in work units. The income of the farm is 
dependent on the crops raised, the cows and other productive 
animals kept, the outside work done for pay. Much other work 
may be done, such as repairing machinery and buildings, taking 
care of work horses, mowing the lawn, etc., but it is the produc- 
tive work that limits the income. The units of productive work of 
all kinds were calculated for each farm in Jefferson County. The 
units used for the more common enterprises were as follows : 



Timothy, alfalfa, clover, per acre per cutting 
Oats, wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, per acre 
Corn, husked from shock, per acre .... 

Corn for silo, per acre 

Field beans, per acre 

Potatoes, per acre 

Cabbage, per acre 

Apples, per acre 

Dairy cow 

10 cattle or colts running loose 

10 brood sows, and raising pigs to weaning 

50 hogs, not brood sows 

iqo ewes 

100 hens 

Raising 200 chickens 



Man 


Horse 


Work Units 


Work Units 


I 


I 


2 


3 


6 


6 


6 


7 


5 


5 


12 


10 


13 


12 


15 


5 


J S 


2 


20 


1 


30 


5 • 


25 


5 


50 


3 


15 


2 


J 5 


2 



59o 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



TABLE 9. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO EFFICIENCY IN THE 
USE OF MEN AND HORSES. 670 FARMS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, 

NEW YORK 



Acres 



Units of 

Productive 

Work 

per Man 



Units of 
Productive 

Work 
per Horse 



30 or less 
3i-5o • 
51-100 . 
101-150 
151-200 
Over 200 




35 
4i 
57 
62 

65 
76 



The average amount of productive work per man varied from 
102 work units on the small farms to 294 on the largest farms. 
Each man on the largest farms is accomplishing nearly three 
times as much work as the men on the small farms. It must be 
remembered also that the crop yields and the returns per cow 
are as good on the larger farms. Each horse on the large farms 
is accomplishing twice as much as each horse on the small farms. 
The farms of less than 100 acres are very wasteful of both man 
and horse labor. 



TABLE 10. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO EFFICIENCY IN THE 

USE OF HORSES. 1248 FARMS, JEFFERSON AND LIVINGSTON 

COUNTIES, NEW YORK 



Acres 



Number 


Acres 


Number 


Acres of 


OF 


of 


of 


Crops 


Farms 


Crops 


Horses 


per Horse 


42 


14.2 


i-5 


9-5 


64 


28.4 


2-3 


12.3 


315 


46.8 


3-i 


i5-i 


3 6 4 


73-5 


4.2 


17.5 


226 


98.7 


5-o 


19.7 


237 


152.8 


7.2 


21.2 



30 or less 

3I-50- • 
51-100 . 
101-150 . 
151-200 . 
Over 200 



Relation of size of farm to efficiency in the use of horses. The 
discussion given above is the best way of comparing horse labor. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



591 



Another comparison is shown in Table 10. On the large farms, 
twice as many acres of crops are raised per horse as on the small 
farms. The average cost of keeping a horse on New York farms, 
as shown by cost accounts, is about $150 a year. This includes 
feed, labor, depreciation, and all other costs. From this the 
importance of the efficient use of horses is apparent. 

Relation of size of farm to efficiency in the use of machinery. 
The small farms are very inadequately equipped with machinery, 
as is shown in Table 1 1 . Even the farms of over 200 acres have 
an investment in machinery of only $833. This represents 
machinery of all ages. Probably the cost when new would be over 
twice as much, but even this sum will not provide all the well- 
established machines, such as a grain-binder, manure-spreader, 
and hay-loader for each farm. But, while the small farms are not 
well equipped, their cost of machinery per acre of crops is almost 
double that on the larger farms. 

TABLE 11. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO EFFICIENCY IN THE 

USE OF MACHINERY. 1248 FARMS, LIVINGSTON AND JEFFERSON 

COUNTIES, NEW YORK 



Acres 



Acres 
of Crops 



Value of 
Machinery 



Value of 

Machinery 

per Acre 

of Crops 



30 or less 

3!-5° • 
51-100 . 
101-150 . 
151-200 . 
Over 200 



14.2 
28.4 
46.8 

73-5 
98.7 



S141 
207 
426 
497 
613 
833 



$9-93 
7.29 
9.10 
6.76 
6.21 
5-45 



Relation of size of farm to efficiency in the use of capital. 
The small farm has relatively much more of its capital invested 
in unproductive ways than does the large farm. No matter how 
small the farm may be, the owner desires a respectable house. 
Table 12 shows that the smallest farms have 43 per cent of their 
capital in houses ; the largest farms have somewhat better houses, 
but have only 9 per cent of their capital thus invested. 



592 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



TABLE 12. AREA RELATED TO INVESTMENT IN BUILDINGS. 
578 FARMS, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Acres 


Value of 
Houses 


Per Cent 

of Total 

Capital 

in Houses 


Value 
of Other 
Buildings 


Per Cent 
of Total 
Capital 
in Other 
Buildings 


Value 

of Other 

Buildings 

per Animal 

Unit 


30 or less .... 

3 J -5o 

51-100 

101-150 

151-200 

Over 200 .... 


$1494 
IOOO 

1236 

1477 
1810 
2113 


43 
2 3 
18 

14 
13 

9 


$655 
681 
1091 
1408 
1900 
2 55 2 


l 9 
i5 
16 

13 
13 
11 


$164 
95 
87 
74 
73 
5o 





The barns on the small farms also take a much larger propor- 
tion of the capital. The smallest farms have 19 per cent of their 
capital thus invested, the largest farms have only 1 1 per cent thus 
tied up. An equally good barn for ten head of stock costs much 
more than half as much as a barn for twenty head of stock. The 
smallest farms have an investment in barns of $164 per animal 
unit. 1 The largest farms have only $50 per animal unit. Yet 
observations lead to the conclusion that the stock on the larger 
places is better housed. If interest, repairs, depreciation, and 
insurance on a building amount to 10 per cent of the value, then 
the housing cost per animal unit will vary from $16 per year on 
the smallest farms to $5 per year on the largest. 

Similar results for the United States are shown in Table 13. 
These indicate, as for other points in this work, that the results 
are of general rather than local application. The farms of less 
than 20 acres have 36 per cent of their capital invested in build- 
ings and machinery. Those of 100' to 174 acres have only 17 
per cent of the money thus invested, yet they have much better 
buildings and more machinery. Money thus employed not only is 
unproductive, but is a source of constant cost for repairs. If a 
farmer had all his money invested in buildings and machinery, 
his income would, of course, be zero. In fact, he would not be a 
farmer at all. 



1 For definition of " animal unit," see page 587. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



593 



TABLE 13. AREA RELATED TO INVESTMENT IN BUILDINGS AND 
MACHINERY, FOR UNITED STATES, 1909, FROM THE CENSUS 

REPORT 



Value of 
Buildings 
per Farm 



Per Cent of 
Capital in 
Buildings 



Value 

of 

Machinery 



Per Cent of 
Capital in 
Machinery 



Under 20 . 

20-49. • • 

50-99. . . 

100-174 . . 

175-499- • 

500-999 . . 
1000 or over 



$605 

474 

848 

1182 

1734 
2174 

3330 



34 
21 

J 9 
14 
10 



#56 
76 
156 
241 
39o 
639 
1196 



2-5 
2.8 

3-i 

2.7 
2.4 
2.4 
1.0 



Relation of size of farm to crop yields. The larger farms pro- 
duce crops as good as, or better than, those produced on the small 
farms, as is shown in Table 14. Since the small farms keep more 
horses and men, the amount of product that they have left over is 

TABLE 14. SIZE OF FARM RELATED TO CROP YIELDS, LIVING- 
STON COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Average 

Size 

(Acres) 


Acres 

per 
Animal 


Yield per Acre of 


Acres 


Wheat 


Oats 


Hay 


Potatoes 


Beans 




Unit 


(bushels) 


(bushels) 


(tons) 


(bushels) 


(bushels) 


30 or less .... 


20 


5-o 


18 


39 


1. 21 


92 


18 


31-50 


44 


6-3 


19 


40 


I.58 


98 


18 


51-100 


79 


6.1 


J 9 


41 


I.49 


Il6 


18 


101-150 .... 


125 


6.6 


19 


42 


i-53 


108 


16 


151-200 .... 


173 


5.8 


J 9 


47 


J-39 


III 


17 


Over 200 .... 


300 


5-9 


19 


43 


i-45 


Il6 


15 



less per acre than the amount left for city consumption from the 
larger farms. In addition, there is a waste of human labor and 
resources in making machinery and buildings that are not given 
full use on the small places. From every standpoint, the farms 
that are large enough to keep machinery and horses busy and 
provide full work for a farmer and his sons are most desirable. 



594 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The relation of the number of acres of crops to the yield of 
crops is shown also in Table 15. The farms with less than 20 

TABLE 15. RELATION OF ACRES OF CROPS TO LABOR INCOME. 
578 FARMS, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Acres of Crops 



Average 

Acres of 

Crops 



Number 
of Farms 



Labor 
Income 



Crop Yields 
Compared 

WITH THE 

Average of 

the Region 

(Per cent) 



20 or less 
21-40 . . 
41-60 . . 
61-80 . . 
81-100 . 
101-140 . 
Over 140 



14 
3i 
5i 
69 
90 
118 
x 93 



18 
55 
95 

"5 
95 

112 



$24 

257 
400 
481 
642 

937 
1261 



75 
102 
103 
102 
101 
103 
100 



acres of crops have poor crops, probably because they cannot 
afford the necessary machinery. Aside from this there seems to 
be no relationship between the acres of crops grown and the 
yields per acre. 

Results in other states. Bulletin 41 of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, pp. 24-29, shows that the same 
principles governing the size of farm apply in Iowa, Illinois, and 
Indiana. Few farms of less than 160 acres were giving good 
labor incomes. The labor cost per acre of crops was high on 
small farms. The acres of crops raised per horse was low and the 
cost of machinery was very high on the small farms. The crop 
yields were as good on the large farms as on the small ones. 

Relation of area in crops to profits. Probably a more accurate 
way of measuring the size of farms is to compare the area in 
harvested crops. This is in addition to pasture, woods, and other 
land not cropped. Results of such a comparison are shown in 
Table 15. The results for the other counties agree with those 
here published. 

Most of the economies in production are dependent on the 
area of crops grown. Five horses can raise 100 to 125 acres of 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 595 

general farm crops when the crops consist of a good combina- 
tion of grain and hay combined with potatoes, apples, or cabbage. 
If the crops are of the above kinds, there should be at least 
20 acres per horse, but if they are largely hay and grain, there 
should be at least 30 acres per horse. In the Eastern states, 
the cost of horse labor per acre is more than the interest on the 
land. While five horses can raise 125 acres of crops, it is diffi- 
cult to raise 50 acres of crops with two horses. Farm machinery 
is built on the two-, three-, and four-horse basis. Evidently, if 
one has less than 80 acres of crops, he must go without good 
machinery or must keep too many horses. There is no solution 
of the problem for him. Machinery, horses, and labor cannot be 
used to the best advantage with less than 100 to 125 acres of 
crops, 150 to 200 acres is still better. 

Truck farms. The preceding discussions should not be con- 
fused with truck farms. In Livingston County, records were ob- 
tained for 1 7 truck farms on muck soil. The chief crops on this 
soil were lettuce, celery, spinach, and onions. This type of farm- 
ing is highly speculative. Crops are by no means sure, and prices 
are extremely variable. One of these farmers made a labor in- 
come of $2931 from 8 acres. This is the highest labor income 
thus found for so small a farm. Another of these muck farms 
lacked $1934 of having any labor income. 

In Jefferson County, records were obtained for 10 truck farms. 
Most of these used lowland soils that were not true muck. Seven 
had 20 to 50 acres. Their average labor income was $662. Three 
had over 50 acres and made an average labor income of $789. 

Unusual conditio?is may affect results. Exceptional prices or 
exceptional land values may decidedly affect results. The results 
for a 1 5 -acre dairy farm that was formerly operated by Mr. Diet- 
rich 1 have been widely quoted and have been the cause of much 
misunderstanding. The farm was fairly profitable. Apparently 
a labor income of about $1000 was made. The farms studied 
in New York of over 200 acres probably had an average capital 
of no more than this man had invested, but 44 per cent of them 
made labor incomes of over $1000. 

1 U.S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bulletin 242. 



596 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Mr. Dietrich sold milk to a state institution at 61 cents a quart 
wholesale, the year round. At ordinary wholesale prices he would 
have lost money. He did very well for his conditions, but his condi- 
tions were entirely unusual. Land was worth city prices, so that 
he could not afford much of it. Milk was at an exceptional price. 

In cities there are successful dairies with less than an acre of 
land. They buy their cows and buy all the feed and bedding. 
But such dairymen get more for their milk because of their 
location. It would be impossible for them to produce milk at a 
profit if it were sold at wholesale farm prices. Such special 
cases do not in any way affect the general principles as to the 
importance of size of farm. 

Profits on very large farms. At the same time that small 
farms in the general-farming states are being combined, the very 
large farms have been decreasing in number. All the discus- 
sions given above apply to " family farms " on which the farmer 
and his family do most of the work. On the farms of over 200 
acres in Livingston County, there was an average of less than 
two hired men per farm. In Jefferson County, the farms of over 
200 acres had an average of one hired man per farm. In each 
county the farms of less than 150 acres furnished work for less 
than one person besides the farmer. 

There are many reasons why very large farms are at a disad- 
vantage. Even with the buildings in the center of the farm, it is 
not often profitable to run more than 600 acres from one center, 
because of the loss of time in going to and from the fields. 
The great variety of work that must be done makes it difficult 
to handle men in gangs and use them like machines. The large 
area over which operations must be conducted makes it impos- 
sible to use factory methods. The frequent changes of work on 
a moment's notice, because of weather or other conditions, makes 
it difficult to prevent loss of time in shifting from one job to 
another. The prices of farm products are based on production 
by the farm family with a little hired help. This sort of labor 
is interested and accomplishes much more than can be done by a 
large farm where the men have no direct interest. It is very dif- 
ficult for the " bonanza " farm to compete with these conditions. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 597 

Ways of increasing the size of business. Some persons have 
drawn the erroneous conclusion that a man with a small capital 
cannot be a farmer because a large farm is necessary. This is 
far from the case. One with no money can be a hired man. 
One who has $1000 to $2000, who knows how to farm, and 
who is efficient and honest can rent a good farm. There are 
many ways of getting control of a good-sized farm without own- 
ing it all. Only 36 per cent of the farmers in the United States 
own all the land that they operate and are free from debt. 

Some farmers who have small farms and who are not in debt 
would do well to borrow money and buy more land. Many 
farmers have taken this means of increasing the size of their 
business. 

There are over half a million farmers in the United States 
who own part of the land that they farm and rent additional 
land. This is usually farmed with little more men, horses, or 
machinery than would have been required to farm the land 
owned. Very frequently this is the best solution of the problem 
for one who already owns a farm. In every county and in every 
state where such studies have been made, the farmers who rent 
additional land make more than those who farm only as much 
as they own. 1 

Another way of increasing the size of the business is to use 
the land for a more intensive type of farming, as poultry-raising 
or truck growing. The soil, climate, transportation, and other 
factors have such a controlling influence on type of farming that 
one should give the matter careful study before attempting a 
type of farming that is not already followed in the region. 
Farmers have tried almost everything. The present types of 
farming are the ones that have stood the test. They are usually 
not far wrong. 

On many farms, the acres of crops can be increased by chang- 
ing brush land to pasture and farming the pasture land. Other 
farms have land that can be reclaimed by drainage. There are 
other cases in which land is already being used too intensively. 

1 Cornell University Agr. Exp. Station, Bulletin 295, p. 426. U. S. Dept. Agr., 
Bulletin 41, p. 14. 



598 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

There is no use in planting crops if the yield is so poor or the 
labor so great as to make a profit impossible. 

Many farmers on small places hire out for various kinds of 
work and thereby increase their incomes. 

In many instances, it is better to remain a tenant on a large 
farm rather than buy a place that is too small for efficient farm- 
ing. This problem is a hard one to answer, because of the 
uncertainty as to the rise in land values. If prices are likely 
to rise much in the region, it will pay to change from tenant to 
owner sooner than would otherwise be desirable. 

For general farming, one should ordinarily hesitate to work 
a farm unless he can raise 80 acres of crops on it or can rent 
additional land. 

Conclusions as to the best size of farm. Many farmers get 
their start on smaller places and by economy are able to save 
money, but for general farming or dairy farming there are great 
advantages in having at least 150 acres of land. On the aver- 
age farm studied, this would include about 80 acres of crops. 
An area that provides for 100 to 200 acres of crops is very 
much better. 

There are many farm operations that require two men. On a 
one-man farm, the horses are kept out of the field whenever the 
farmer does chores, hand work, or goes to town. On a two-man 
farm, one man may be using all the horses while the other man 
does other work. If there are four or five horses on the place, 
the man who is working the teams may be driving three or four 
horses, and at the same time the other man may make a trip 
to town with one horse. All the horses are then kept at work. 
A farm with five horses has a great advantage in being able to 
adjust the size of team to machinery and work. It allows a five- 
horse team ; a four-horse team or two two-horse teams, with a 
single horse for other work ; or allows a three- and a two-horse 
team. By these means, the labor of men and machinery is econ- 
omized and work can be more promptly done. The chores are 
frequently done by the man not working the team, again keep- 
ing the horses in the field. It is almost impossible to keep the 
horses busy on a one-man farm. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 599 

If a farmer has only two horses, he cannot take advantage of 
the great economy that comes from driving three- and four-horse 
teams. Even if he could borrow the horses and machinery, he 
could not use them to the best advantage in his small fields. The 
farms of over 150 acres are the smallest ones in the counties 
studied that employ the equivalent of two men and five horses. 

If the farmer has sons, he needs enough land to provide profit- 
able work for them else they will have to leave the farm. In' 
Bulletin 341 of this station, the effect of the size of farm on 
boys leaving the farm is shown. 

To make a moderate success on a small farm is much more 
difficult than to make a good success on a fair-sized farm. When 
the necessary equipment and horses for an 80-acre farm will be 
almost sufficient for 160 acres, and when a family can do all the 
work on the larger farm, it will be seen at once that the larger 
farm will double the income without much more expense. It 
therefore becomes a task for a genius on the 80-acre farm to 
compete with a very ordinary mortal on the larger area. 

It takes much less intelligence to make a profit out of a mowing 
machine that cuts 50 acres a year than it does out of one that cuts 
10 acres. It takes less ability to make a profit out of four horses 
that raise 100 acres of crops than it does to make a profit out of 
half as many horses that farm only 40 acres. It takes much less 
intelligence to direct a hired man so as to make a profit from 
employing him if he drives three or four horses, than it does if 
he drives two horses. 

The above discussion applies to general farming and dairy farm- 
ing, but, whatever the type of farming, the farm should be large 
enough to allow for the use of the well-established labor-saving 
practices, and large enough to provide a variety of products that 
make a full year's work. For truck growing, 80 acres may be as 
large as 300 acres in general farming. An acre partly covered 
with greenhouses may be an equally large business. 

There is much discussion of this subject by persons who have 
had no farm experience or whose farm experience was gained 
before manure-spreaders, potato-diggers, and hay-loaders were 
invented. These persons usually advise little farms rather than 



600 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

150- to 200-acre farms. The advice is also constantly given that 
farmers turn to truck growing. The supply of truck crops is 
easily overdone. It is usually unwise to grow truck crops unless 
both the soil and the markets are particularly adapted to such 
crops. The vast majority of our farmers must continue to produce 
wheat, milk, hay, oats, potatoes, and the general farm crops. 
Such advice is usually given under the impression that small 
farms and truck crops will reduce the cost of living in cities. 
Under American conditions, the fair-sized farms produce farm 
products at least cost, so that the little farm is not desirable from 
any standpoint. Farmers are quick to respond whenever any type 
of farming promises greater profits. They change to truck 
growing wherever conditions warrant the change. 

A farm of 1 to 20 acres makes an excellent home if one has 
some other source of income, but a general farm of this area is 
a very poor business. A farm is a place to work. The man who 
buys a farm buys a permanent job. If the farm is not large 
enough to provide a fair amount of productive work, it must of 
necessity be a very poor business. 

RELATION OF CROP YIELDS TO PROFITS 

Relation of crop yields to labor income. In order to determine 
the influence that yield per acre of crops has on profits, the yields 
on each farm were expressed on a percentage basis with 100 per 
cent representing the average yield of the region. The footnote 
to the table on page 601 gives the method of making the calcu- 
lations. On some farms the larger yields are due to better soil, 
on others they are due to better methods of farming. 

An average crop in Livingston County is better than the state 
average because the soils of the northern part of Livingston 
County are much better than the average. The yields were about 
15 per cent above the averages given for the state by the 
census report. 

The average yields in Livingston County for the year studied 
were hay, 1.42 tons; wheat, 18.5 bushels; oats, 41.1 bushels; 
beans, 15.9 bushels; corn, 39.6 bushels; potatoes, 106 bushels; 
cabbage, 6.18 tons. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



60 1 



The effect of crop yields per acre on labor income is shown in 
Table 16 and by the chart on page 603. There is almost as strik- 
ing a correlation between yield and profit as between size of farm 
and profit. Of course some persons who have large farms make 
large labor incomes in spite of poor crop yields, but this does 
not in any way disprove the importance of good yields. On the 
average, the farmers whose crop yields dropped more than 1 5 per 
cent below the yields secured by the neighbors did not make 
hired man's wages. 

Of 118 farms with crop yields 15 per cent or more below the 
average, only 7 made labor incomes of over $1000, but of 135 
farms with crop yields over 15 per cent above the average, 55 
made labor incomes over $1000. 

Of course, there are instances of success with low crop yields 
when other factors are favorable. One man who had 166 acres 
of land and whose crop yields were only 62 per cent of the 
average made a labor income of $1652, but his receipts per cow 
were over twice the average and he received a high price for 
apples. Four men with large farms made over $3000 with crop 
yields 8 to 14 per cent below the average. They did well in spite 
of rather low yields. Others with farms of the same size and 
better crops did better. 

TABLE 16. RELATION OF CROP YIELDS TO LABOR INCOME. 
574 FARMS, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK* 



Yields compared with Average of Region 
(Per cent) 



Average Yield 
compared 

with Average 
of Region 
(Per cent) 



Number 
of Farms 



Labor 
Income 



75 or less 
76-85 . . 
86-95 ■ • 
96-105 . 
106-115 . 
116-125 . 
Over 125 



67 

81 

90 

101 

no 

120 

138 



58 

60 

102 

116 
103 

66 
6 9 



$165 
219 
663 
57o 
878 

95 1 
1090 



1 If a farmer gets a small yield of hay and a large yield of oats, it is difficult to 
say whether his crops are good or poor. In order to make a comparison, all yields 



602 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The chart on page 603 shows the labor incomes made by farm- 
ers whose crop yields were 1 5 per cent or more below the average 
and by those whose crop yields were 15 per cent or more above 
the average. Each cross represents one farmer and its position 
indicates his labor income. 

The relative positions of the two entire groups show the im- 
portance of crop yields. In each group there are great varia- 
tions due to size of farms, receipts per cow, and many other 
factors. There is only a little correlation between crop yields 
and receipts per cow or size of farm (p. 503), so that these in- 
fluences scatter the farms in each group but do not affect the 
position of the group as a whole. The scattering within the 
group misleads many persons who are used to drawing conclusions 
from individual cases. There are plenty of individuals who are 
doing better with poor crops than some one else is doing with 
good crops. Such cases are because of some other difference 
that is great enough to more than offset the result that comes 
from the crop yields. 

Good crops are one of the primary factors affecting profits, 
but phenomenal crops are not necessary. Few farmers raise 
crops more than a third better than the average. Good crops 

must be charged to a percentage basis. The method of figuring the percentage 
yield is illustrated as follows : Suppose that a farmer has 20 acres of wheat yield- 
ing 15 bushels, 30 acres of "oats yielding 40 bushels, and 50 acres of hay yielding 
1.7 tons. Each of these yields is compared with the average of the region as 
given on page 626. The wheat yield is 81 per cent of the average. The oat yield 
is 97 per cent. We then have 





Acres 


Per Cent 


Percentage 

times Acres 




81 

97 
120 




35 


3,395 
6,000 


50 






105 




11,015 







Dividing 11,015 by 105, we find that this farmer's yields are 105 per cent. This 
we call the crop index. 

When the total crop is given, a short way of figuring crop index is to divide 
the total yield of each crop by the average for that crop, add the results, and 
divide by the number of acres. It will be seen that this is the same as the above 
method except for the order in which the operations are done. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



603 





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604 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



pay, but it is not necessary to raise "two spears of grass where 
one grew before." Those who raise one and a fifth are doing 
very well. In fact, it is not probable that it would often pay to 
raise twice as much as the neighbors raise on the same soil. 
Farmers keep a fairly close adjustment of crop yields to prices, 
but, being conservative, they do not always change quite as 
promptly as conditions would justify them in doing. They are 
not so foolish as to be ioo per cent out of adjustment to condi- 
tions, as is assumed when they are advised to double their crop 
yields. Of course, individual instances can be cited in which 
such a change has paid, but instances prove nothing. 

In Jefferson County, there was not quite so striking a relation- 
ship between crop yields and labor incomes. The reason for 



TABLE 17. RELATION OF CROP YIELDS TO LABOR INCOME. 
670 FARMS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Yields compared with Average of Region 
(Per cent) 



75 or less 
76-85 . . 
86-95 • • 
96-105 . 
106-115 . 
1 1 6-1 25 . 
Over 125 



Average Yield 
compared 

with Average 
of Region 
(Per cent) 



65 
8l 

9 1 
101 
in 
120 

!43 



Number 
of Farms 



94 

85 

95 

103 

87 

67 

*39 



Labor 
Income 



$306 
526 
618 
650 
662 
693 

755 



this is that the region depends on crops to a less extent. Prob- 
ably the difference is also in part due to the kind of crops. 
Much more of the area is in hay. A small yield of hay may be 
harvested so cheaply that it may pay when an equally poor yield 
of a crop that required more labor would result in a loss. But, 
even in Jefferson County, the crop yields are next in importance 
to area, receipts per cow, and diversity. 

Relation of crop yields to other factors. As has already been 
shown (p. 593), the crop yields are practically the same on 
large and on small farms. The farmers with the best crops 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 605 

spend a little more for fertilizer, but even those who got the 
best crops spent an average of only 60 cents per acre of crops 
in Livingston County and 26 cents in Jefferson County. The 
farmers with the best crop yields kept somewhat more live-stock 
than did those with the poorer yields. The farms that gave the 
best crop yields had an animal unit for each 3.4 acres of crops 
in Livingston County, and one for each 2.2 acres of crops in 
Jefferson County. The percentage of receipts from cash crops 
was about the same in each group. The better crops enable the 
farmers to keep more live-stock and yet sell as large a propor- 
tion of cash crops as are sold on the farms with poorer yields. 
In Livingston County the receipts per cow had no relationship to 
the crop yields. In Jefferson County the returns per cow were a 
little better on the farms that got the best crops. The amount 
of work accomplished per man or horse is just the same on the 
farms getting good crops as on those getting poor crops. The 
good crops do not come from working fewer acres per man 
or horse. 

Comparative influence of crop yields and size of farm on profits. 
Crop yields are a very important factor affecting profits, but their 
importance has often been over-emphasized. Yields are only one 
of the limiting factors. Unfortunately the almost universal method 
of emphasizing the importance of yields is to disparage the im- 
portance of number of acres. The size of business is fully as 
important as yields. It is not necessary to deny the importance 
of either one in order to prove the importance of the other. One 
of the oft-quoted axioms that is about as misleading as most 
axioms is that the farmer should " farm fewer acres and do it 
better." We have already seen that the larger farms raise crops 
as good as the small ones. There is no necessity for reducing 
the size of farm below the area that is adapted to modern ma- 
chinery in order to raise better crops. The advice to farm better 
is good, but it is a mistake to assume that this calls for fewer 
acres. 

Table 18 shows in a most striking way the combined influence 
of size of farm and crop yields. With any given size of farm, 
the labor incomes increase very rapidly as crop yields increase. 



6o6 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



If the crops are very poor (more than 15 per cent below the 
average), there is usually little profit with any size of farm. If 
crop yields drop so low that they are raised at a loss, more acres 
would not help matters. But with average crops, the profits 
increase rapidly with size of farm. 

The farms of 50 acres or less did not do very well even if 
they did have good crops. The farms of 51 to 100 acres with 
the best crops made more than the farms of 10 1 to 150 with 
average crops, but not nearly so much as the farms of ov^er 
200 acres with average crops. 

Farms of 10 1 to 150 acres with the best crops made more 
than did farms of 151 to 200 acres with average crops, but not 
much more than half as much as did farms of 151 to 200 acres 
that also had the best crops. 

A comparison of the chart on page 585 with that on page 603 
shows that area sets a more positive limit on profits than do 
yields. The farms of a given area are grouped more closely 
about the average than are the farms with given crop yields. 
This should be expected. With a given area, one soon reaches 
the limit of crop production. He cannot get yields of five to 
ten times the average. But with given crop yields, there are 
some farms over five to ten times as large as others. 

TABLE 18. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM AND CROP YIELDS TO 
LABOR INCOME. 574 FARMS, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Acres 



Crop Yields compared with Average 
of Region 



85 per cent 
or less 



86 to 115 
per cent 



Over 115 
per cent 



50 or less 
51-100 . 
101-150 . 
151-200 . 
Over 200 



Labor income 
$29 
185 

94 
449 
266 



Labor income 

#3 21 
427 

592 

934 

1056 



Labor income 

#355 

656 

985 
1749 
1773 



Conclusions on crop yields. Usually the most profitable way for 
the individual farmer to secure good crops is to get a farm that 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 607 

has a naturally rich soil. It is usually much cheaper to buy 
fertility in the soil than to buy poor land and spend years and 
money in making it productive. 

With any given soil, the crops may be increased by saving the 
farm manure and by spreading it thin enough with a manure- 
spreader so that the entire farm can be covered frequently, every 
five years if possible. It is much better to spread five loads per 
acre every five years than to spread ten loads every ten years. 

The use of more fertilizers, lime, tile drains, better methods 
of tillage, and better crop rotations may also be called for. 
Which of the various means of securing good crops to use, and 
just how far to go with one before improving on some other point, 
is a problem that taxes the best judgment of the most experienced 
farmer. Certainly it does not pay to go on permanently raising 
crops that are poorer than the neighbors raise. If the results in 
the entire neighborhood are too low because of poor soil, it may 
be best to change the type of farming or to go elsewhere. There 
is no more reason for working a farm that cannot be made to 
pay than there is for working the abandoned iron mines in 
New York that cannot be made to pay. 

Apparently a farmer would do well to use some means by which 
he can obtain yields a little better than his neighbors obtain 071 
the same soil. About a fifth better seems to be a good standard 
to work for. If the neighbors raise one ton of hay, it is probable 
that it will pay to raise at least 1.2 tons. If they raise 1.5 tons, 
it is probable that 1.75 tons will pay better. But on the soil that 
normally raises 1.5 tons, it is probable that 3 tons can be raised 
at less cost per ton on two acres than on one. In short, it is 
usually not wise to go too far beyond the natural limitations of 
the soil. Certainly this is the opinion of the farmers. The high- 
est crop index in Livingston County was 186 per cent. There 
was no farmer whose crops were twice as good as the average. 
There were, of course, instances of a single crop being as good 
as that, but, taking all the crops together, 86 per cent above the 
average was the highest yield obtained. This farm had a soil that 
was naturally extra good. 



6o8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

RELATION OF PRODUCTION OF ANIMALS TO PROFITS 

Receipts per animal. If a farm keeps many animals, the re- 
turns from them are of course just as important as are the crop 
yields. The products sold from the average cow little more than 
pay for the feed. But the value of the feed in New York is 
usually only about 55 to 70 per cent of the total cost of keeping 
a cow. There can be no profit from keeping an average cow with 
the present prices that farmers receive for their dairy products. 
The prices of products ought to be high enough so that an aver- 
age cow would pay interest and wages to the farmer. But the 
general question as to price of milk is not a matter that any 
individual farmer can settle. The purpose of this bulletin is to 
help individuals with their personal problems. The individual 
must take the price offered, and, if he is to make a profit, must 
adjust his business accordingly. There is no surer way of losing 
money than to feed cows that do not pay their feed bill. 

The average receipts per cow from milk and .its products were 
$53 in Tompkins County, $57 in Livingston County, and $59 in 
Jefferson County. This is in addition to milk used for the few 
calves raised and in addition to milk used in the home. When 
all feed is counted and the entire value of milk and stock is 
counted, the average cow pays her feed bill, but the manure does 
not begin to pay all other costs. Evidently one must have cows 
much better than the average in order to make money. 

The receipts per cattle unit averaged $52 in Tompkins County, 
$52 in Livingston, and $57 in Jefferson. This includes returns 
from all sources for the entire cattle industry. This indicates that 
the returns from raising and selling cattle do not greatly change 
the results. 

When all animals except horses are included, the results are little 
changed, the receipts per animal unit except work horses being $ 5 2 
for Tompkins County, $50 for Livingston, and $61 for Jefferson. 

Relation of receipts per cow to profits. Table 19 shows the 
relation of the receipts per cow to profits on farms in Jefferson 
County having six or more cows. Not until the receipts per cow 
reach $75 do the cows aid the farmer in making a profit. Efforts 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



609 



TABLE 19. RELATION OF RECEIPTS PER COW FROM MILK AND 

ITS PRODUCTS TO PROFITS ON 585 FARMS WITH SIX OR MORE 

COWS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Receipts per Cow 


Average Receipts per Cow 


Number of Farms 


Labor Income 


$30 or less 

$3 I -$S<> 

$S*-$7S 

$76-^100 

Over $100 


$22 
42 
63 

86 
119 


45 
178 
221 
in 

30 


$241 

394 
764 

909 
i3°7 



to raise the receipts per cow are worthy of the most serious atten- 
tion. There were 223 farmers in Jefferson County who sold less 
than $51 worth of milk and its products per cow. If these 
farmers cannot find a way to get better returns, it would pay 
them to sell their cows and either keep some other kind of live- 
stock or else not keep any. 1 

The size of the farms is practically the same in each group of 
receipts per cow. The rate of work of men and horses is also 
practically the same. The men who get the best returns per cow 
are not reducing the number of cows per man. The crop yields 
are a little better on the farms getting the highest returns per 
cow. This would help to raise the labor income. The percentage 
of receipts from crops is lowest on the farms that secured the 
best returns per cow. As we shall see later, this tends to reduce 
the profits. This will probably offset the effect of better crops, 
so that the higher labor incomes are probably the direct result of 
the returns per cow. 

Better cows and better feeding are the two chief differences 
that result in better returns per cow. Weighing the milk from 
each cow, cow-testing associations, and methods of feeding are 
worthy of much more attention in every county studied. Bulletins 
and advice on these subjects are readily available. 

The number of calves raised is not strikingly different in the 
different groups. Those with the poorest returns are raising a 
little larger proportion of their calves. 

1 Cornell University Agr. Exp. Station, Bulletin 295, p. 484. 



610 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The extent to which the farmers are buying cows is about the 
same in the first three groups.- They replace about i cow in 23 
by purchase each year. Those who get returns of $76 to $100 
per cow are doing more buying and selling. Those who secured 
returns of over $100 per cow are doing the most buying and 
selling. Each year they replace one seventh of the herd by pur- 
chase and one eighth with heifers raised. They are changing 
cows almost twice as fast as is the average dairyman. They 
depend more on purchased cows than do those who get poorer 
returns. This is exactly contrary to the popular statement that 
in order to be successful a dairyman must depend on the calves 
raised by himself. 

By purchase and by heifers raised the farmers who got returns 
of less than $76 per cow replaced one seventh of the herd in the 
year. Those who got returns of $76 to $100 replaced one fifth 
of the herd. Those who got returns of over $100 replaced over 
one fourth of the herd (28 per cent) in the year. 

Sixty per cent of the farmers who received over $100 per cow 
kept pure-bred and 30 per cent kept high-grade Holstein bulls. 
The proportion of pure-bred and -high-grade bulls decreased as 
the receipts per cow decreased. 

Some farmers are selling the wrong kind of dairy product. A 
few farmers are making butter on the farm to be sold at whole- 
sale prices. Few of these are getting good returns per cow or 
are making good labor incomes if they depend very largely on the 
dairy. It is very difficult to make a profit from homemade butter 
sold at ordinary prices. Those who sell to creameries to be made 
into butter are doing better, but the returns from this source are 
not very high. When one lives near enough to a milk-shipping 
station or lives on a milk route so that the milk can be hired 
hauled, market milk usually pays best. However the product is 
sold, if the receipts are not $7$ to $100 per cow the farmer 
should study his dairy conditions in order to see whether he can 
increase the returns, and if they cannot be increased he may well 
question the advisability of continuing in the dairy business. Near 
New York City, where feed and milk are both higher in price, 
the returns should be better in order to make the business pay. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



611 



There is a much greater variation in the production per animal 
than in the crop yields on different farms. The farmer has a 
much fuller control of the factors that determine the production 
of the animals than of those that determine the crop yields. If 
a farmer does his part in selection, care, and feeding, he may 
expect returns from his animals of nearly double the average. 
But whatever one may do, his crops may be limited by drought, 
frost, or other unfavorable conditions that are beyond his control. 
Because of these uncertainties, a good farmer usually finds that 
it pays to do his part for a production per animal of at least fifty 
per cent above the average, while he may not strive for crops 
that exceed the average by more than half this amount. 

For further discussion of this and the returns from other kinds 
of animals, see Bulletin 295 of this station, pp. 473-502. 

Relation of size of farm, crop yields, arid receipts per cow to 
profits. The effect of various combinations of good and poor 
crops with large and small farms has been shown on pages 605- 
606. When we add the third factor of good cows, a still more 
striking correlation is shown. Table 20 gives such a comparison. 



TABLE 20. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM, RECEIPTS PER COW, 

AND CROP YIELDS, TO LABOR INCOME ON 585 FARMS WITH 

SIX OR MORE COWS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Acres 




100 or less 


101-150 


Over 150 




Labor income 


Labor income 


Labor income 


Receipts per cow $50 or less 








Crop index 85 per cent or less . . 


$3<>8 


$273 


$33* 


Crop index 86-115 per cent . . . 


381 


482 


424 


Crop index over 115 per cent . . 


158 


415 


413 


Receipts per cow ^51-^75 








Crop index 85 per cent or less . . 


304 


590 


669 


Crop index 86-115 per cent . . . 


437 


653 


IOI7 


Crop index over 115 per cent . . 


537 


636 


Il6l 


Receipts per cow over $75 








Crop index 85 per cent or less . . 


594 


935 


1233 


Crop index 86-115 per cent . . . 


641 


1038 


1 148 


Crop index over 115 per cent . . 


659 


1 1 24 


1291 



612 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Each of the factors is of great importance. Size of farm and 
receipts per cow are about equally important. Each of them is 
more important than yields per acre in Jefferson County. Raising 
the cows from the middle to the best group has the same effect 
as raising the size of farm from the middle to the largest group. 
The crops must be changed from the lowest to the best class in 
order to have an equal effect. 

No one of the factors results in a good labor income if the 
other factors are poor. A combination of good cows and good 
crops with a small farm does not give a good labor income, but 
of course is better than a small farm with poor cows and poor 
crops. A large farm does not bring good results if the cows and 
the crops are poor. There are seven different combinations that 
resulted in average labor incomes of over $1000: 

A large farm with medium cows and medium crops. 

A large farm with medium cows and good crops. 

A medium-sized farm with good cows and medium crops. 

A medium-sized farm with good cows and good crops. 

A large farm with good cows and poor crops. 

A large farm with good cows and medium crops. 

A large farm with good cows and good crops. 

Of course the farms that had good cows, good crops, and a 
large area did best. 

PROPORTION OF INCOME FROM CASH CROPS AND FROM 

ANIMALS 

Relation of cash crops to profits. Farmers who maintain a good 
balance between cash crops and animal products make more than 
do those who go to either extreme. In Jefferson County those 
who sold no crops made little more than half as much as did 
those who derived half their income from cash crops. But those 
who derived more than 60 per cent of their income from the 
sale of crops also made less than did those who kept a good 
balance, as is shown in Table 2 1 . The returns per cow are much 
better on the farms that derive the least from cash crops, so that 
the better returns on the diversified farms are in spite of the 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



613 



TABLE 21. RELATION OF PROFITS TO PROPORTION OF THE 
INCOME FROM CROPS. 670 FARMS, JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW 

YORK 



Per Cent of Receipts 
from Crops 


Average 
Per Cent 

from Crops 


Number 
of Farms 


Receipts 

PER COW 

from Milk 

AND ITS 

Products 


Work 
Units 

per Man 


Labor 
Income 




O 

4 
16 

3° 
49 
7$ 


81 

20I 

III 

180 

65 

32 


$6l 

65 
60 

57 
5o 
3 2 


243 
248 
247 
252 
236 
168 


$412 
546 

653 
692 
781 
536 


10 or less 

11-20 

21-40 

41-60 

Over 60 



poorer cows. Cash crops, therefore, appear to be even more 
important than the table indicates. 

The poorer the cows, the more important it is that crops be 
sold. The farmers who have the best cows sell the least crops. 
But even with the best cows, those who sell some crops are doing 
better than those who sell no crops, as is seen in Table 22. The 

TABLE 22. RELATION OF RECEIPTS PER COW AND CASH CROPS 
TO PROFITS ON 585 FARMS WITH SIX OR MORE COWS, JEFFER- 
SON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Per Cent of Receipts from Crops 



Receipts per Cow from Milk and its 
Products 



$50 or less 



$5i~$75 



Over $ 7S 



No crops sold 
1-20 per cent 
21-40 . . . 
41-60 . . . 
Over 60 . . 



Labor income 

311 
426 

554 
599 



Labor income 

#571 

589 

947 
1366 



Labor income 

$926 

962 

H83 

1 

2 



conclusions agree with the results for Tompkins and Livingston 
counties. (See Bulletin 295 of this station, pp. 503-510.) 



1 Only two farms in this group. 



No farms in this group. 



6i 4 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The amount of capital must also be considered in determining 
the amount of animal products to sell. Table 23 shows that the 

TABLE 23. RELATION OF CAPITAL TO CASH CROPS. 578 FARMS, 
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Capital 


Per Cent of Receipts 
from Crops 


Per Cent of Receipts from 
Stock and Stock Products 


$5000 or less 

$5001-^7500 

$75oi-$io,ooo ....... 

$io,ooi-$i 5,000 

$I5,OOI-$20,000 

Over $20,000 


73 
68 

65 
65 

55 
43 


27 
32 

35 
35 

45 
57 



farmers with small capital are selling more crops, and that as 
the capital increases, the sales of animal products become more 
important. 

In each capital group there are farmers who are trying all de- 
grees of live-stock and crop farming. Table 24 shows that with 

TABLE 24. RELATION OF CAPITAL AND CASH CROPS TO PROFITS. 
578 FARMS, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Per Cent of Receipts from Crops 





Capital 




$5000 or less 


$5ooi-$i5,ooo 


Over $15,000 


Labor t7icome 


Labor income 


Labor income 


#253 


#399 


$IOOO 


181 


411 


1399 


256 


624 


IO38 


424 


623 


1 194 


231 


497 


473 



20 or less 
21-40 
41-70 . 
71-90 . 
Over 90 . 



small capital those who depend largely on cash crops make the 
most, while with larger capital those who derive only 21 to 
40 per cent of their income from crops are doing best. This is 
what one would expect. Live-stock represents added capital after 
one has bought and equipped his farm. If one is short of money, 
the absolutely essential things are land, machinery, and horses. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 



615 



One may get along without live-stock, but one cannot farm with- 
out land and equipment. The majority of farmers understand 
this principle. When they get more money, they increase the 
amount and improve the quality of their live-stock. 

Acres of crops per animal unit. Another way of comparing 
farms is on the basis of number of acres of crops grown for 
each animal unit kept. An animal unit is a cow or a horse, or 
the equivalent in young stock or other animals, as defined on 
page 587. Crops grown include all harvested crops, but do not 
include pasture or woods. All the farmers had pasture in addi- 
tion. In Jefferson County there were no farmers who kept more 
than one animal unit for each acre of crops grown. More than 
half of the farmers kept an animal unit for each 1 to 3 acres 
of crops. The farms that were most heavily stocked secured the 
best crop yields, but did not make the best labor incomes. The 
best labor incomes were made by those who did not go to either 
extreme — the ones who had their farms moderately well stocked, 
as is shown in Table 25. Some of the reasons for the better 
results by those who avoid either extreme will be given later. 



TABLE 25. RELATION OF* ACRES OF CROPS PER ANIMAL UNIT 

TO LABOR INCOME AND CROP YIELDS. 670 FARMS, JEFFERSON 

COUNTY, NEW YORK 





Acres of Crops per Animal Unit 


Number 
of Farms 


Crop Yields 

compared 

with Average 

of Region 

(Per cent) 


Labor 
Income 


I.O-2.0 

2.1-3-0 

3- J -4-o 

4-i-5-o 

Over 5.0 


165 
229 

131 

64 
81 


123 
104 

93 
88 

9 1 


$58o 

597 
601 
721 

627 





The amount of stock that it pays to keep of course depends 
on the returns that one gets from it. With very poor stock, the 
less one has the better. The better the stock, the more heavily 
the place should be stocked. With good stock in Jefferson County, 
it pays best to have an animal unit for each 3 to 4 acres of crops 



6i6 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



(Table 26). The exact amount to keep will of course vary in 
different regions and on different farms, but nearly always a 
diversified farm pays better than does a farm that goes to either 
extreme. 

TABLE 26. RELATION OF ACRES OF CROPS PER ANIMAL AND 

RECEIPTS PER ANIMAL UNIT TO LABOR INCOME. 670 FARMS, 

JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Acres of Crops per Animal Unit 



Receipts for Each Animal Unit except 
Horses 



$50 or less 



*5i-$75 



Over $75 



I.O-2.0 . 
2.I-3.O . 
3.I-4.O . 
Over 4.0 



Labor income 

#210 

264 

3M 
378 



Labor i?icome 

$649 

680 

763 

824 



#895 
971 

I0 53 
914 



Reasons for larger profits on diversified farms. There are 
many reasons why it does not pay to go to the extreme either 
way. Ordinarily a man can raise feed for more cows than he 
can milk. If each man milks 10 to 15 cows, he can raise the 
hay and silage for these cows and part of the grain, and in addi- 
tion will have time to raise hay, potatoes, cabbage, or other crops 
for sale. If the cows are so poor, or prices of the product so 
low, that the cows do not pay a good price for their feed, it is 
of vital importance that cash crops be raised. Even if the cows 
are so profitable that they pay more than market price for their 
feed, it still pays to raise cash crops, because these crops can be 
raised at very little additional cost. It might be suggested that 
more cows be kept to eat the additional crops, but this calls for 
more men who in turn can raise additional crops, for practically 
always the men can raise more crops than enough to feed the 
cows that they can milk. This question is fully discussed in 
Bulletin 295 of this station, pp. 506-524. 

There are other reasons why diversified farms pay best. If a 
dairyman keeps all the t cows he can feed in a good year, he will 
have to buy hay in a poor year. On such years hay is usually 
very high in price, but the price of milk usually does not change 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 617 

much. Either he must buy high-priced hay or sell some of his 
stock. It usually pays to keep no more stock than one can raise 
hay and silage for in a rather poor year. This allows some rough- 
age to sell in good years. Hay and roughage are so expensive 
to handle that one must study his conditions carefully before he 
decides to buy hay regularly. Diversified farming lessens the risk. 
If a farm is too heavily stocked, the returns from manure are 
not so good. The thinner manure is spread, the more the returns 
per load of manure. At the Pennsylvania Experiment Station a 
test of this has been running for many years. Manure is applied 
every other year at the rates of 6, 8, and 10 tons per acre. For 
twenty-five years the average values of the increased crop per ton 
of manure were 1 

6 tons applied every two years $2.16 per ton 

8 tons applied every two years 1.66 per ton 

1 o tons applied every two years . . . . 1 .44 per ton 

A similar test is being conducted in Ohio. Manure is applied 
once every three years. The average value of the increased crops 
per ton of manure for seventeen years were 2 

4 tons applied every three years . . . . $3.48 per ton 
8 tons applied every three years . . . . 2.70 per ton 
16 tons applied every three years .... 2.24 per ton 

An animal unit usually produces a little over a ton of manure 
a month. Much of this is produced at pasture. If all the manure 
around the barns is saved, it will usually amount to 6 to 9 tons 
per animal unit kept on a New York farm. If an animal unit is 
kept for each three acres of crops, and if all the manure is 
saved, there will be enough to cover all the cropped land with 
about 6 to 9 tons per acre every three years. 

A very large amount of the manure is lost, so that what should 
be one of the important returns from live-stock becomes of less 
consequence. Some persons who would not think of selling hay, 
for fear of losing fertility, will allow half the manure that they 

1 Pennsylvania Agr. Exp. Station, Bulletin 90, p. 23. 

2 Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. 



618 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

get from feeding it to be wasted. The farm is no better off than 
it would be if they sold half the hay and saved all the manure. 

A large proportion of the animal products that go on the 
market are produced from low-grade feed. Animals are kept to 
fill out the year's work. Stock is often kept in order to make use 
of pasture land that could not otherwise be used. Much of the 
work is sometimes done by women and children. For all these 
reasons, live-stock is produced on a close margin of profit. The 
results of cost accounts show that, for the time spent, crops usu- 
ally give much higher pay for a day's work than do animals. It 
usually pays to spend at least part of the time raising cash crops 
that pay good returns for a day's work. 

If one goes to the other extreme and keeps no animals or too 
few animals, he will not have a full year's work. Animals help to 
provide winter work. Table 21 shows that when over 60 per cent 
of the money comes from cash crops, a man accomplishes only 
two thirds as much in a year as he does when more animals are 
kept. It is best to raise cash crops when they pay well, but the 
year should be filled put with other work even if the pay per day 
is less. 

Every farm has a considerable amount of low-grade hay, mixed 
hay, and other products that do not have much market value or 
that are too bulky to pay to sell. At least enough stock should be 
kept to make use of these low-grade products. On most farms 
there is some land that will not pay for farming but that will 
bring some income as pasture land. 

Whatever explanation one may make of the reasons for diversi- 
fied farming, the facts remain the same. In every county studied, 
the persons who have a good balance between cash crops and 
animal products are making more than are those who go to either 
extreme. Usually, in New York, 20 to 40 per cent of the receipts 
should be from the sale of crops. The more money one has and 
the more profitable his animals are, the nearer he should come to 
an exclusively stock farm, but it rarely pays to stop selling at least 
one cash crop. The less money there is available and the poorer 
stock pay, the fewer one should keep, but it rarely pays to sell 
nothing but crops even on a truck farm. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 619 

Usually a farm should have two to four important products, 
and usually at least one of these should be an animal product and 
at least one should be a cash crop. Diversified farming is often 
spoken of as farming where one has a little of everything. The 
writer doubts the value of an indefinite collection of things all so 
small that they are likely to be more or less neglected, but all in- 
vestigations indicate the desirability of having two to four products 
to sell, each one of which is so important that it is not neglected. 

IMPORTANCE OF A WELL-BALANCED FARM 

All the preceding discussions indicate that it is not merely good 
cows, good crops, and a good-sized farm that need attention, but 
that when one has improved one of these he should- give attention 
to the others. Farmers are just like all other persons — they are 
likely to have hobbies. The man with good cows is likely to be- 
come so proud of his cows that he neglects his crops. The man 
with good crops sometimes neglects his stock. Very often atten- 
tion is given to increased production when a larger business is 
the most important point to be^ considered. 

There are very few farms that are good in each of the above 
three points. In the region in Jefferson County there were 16 
farms that had receipts per cow of $75 or more, that raised 100 
acres of crops or more, and that had crops as good as, or better 
than, the average. The average labor income on these farms was 
$1497. The lowest labor income was $733. 

In order to have a figure that will compare farms when size, 
receipts per cow, and crop yields are given equal weight, a figure 
was calculated for each farm representing its comparison with the 
average farm. The average size is called 100 per cent. The 
average receipts per cow and the average crop yields were each 
called 100 per cent. On this basis the percentages representing 
size of farm, receipts per cow, and crop yields for each farm were 
calculated. These three percentages were then multiplied together 
to get a single figure representing the farm. 1 If a farm is of 

1 In making this calculation a much shorter way of calculating was used, but 
the method given above shows the principles involved. 



620 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



average size, gets average crops, and has cows twice as good as 
the average, it is represented by 200 per cent. If a farm has 
average crops and is twice as large as the average, but has cows 
only half as good as the average, it is represented by 100 per cent. 
Table 27 shows a comparison of farms sorted in this way. 

TABLE 27. COMPARISON OF FARMS WHEN AREA, CROP YIELDS, 
AND RECEIPTS PER COW ARE GIVEN EQUAL CONSIDERATION. 
AVERAGE FARM EQUALS 100 PER CENT. JEFFERSON COUNTY, 

NEW YORK 



Comparison with Average 
(Per cent) 

30 or less 

3 T -40 

4i-5o 

51-60 

61-70 

71-80 

81-90 

91-100 

101-200 . . 

Over 200 



Number 
of Farms 



Labor 
Income 



57 
45 
58 
56 
62 

56 
38 
34 
199 
62 



#95 



300 
390 
5°7 
568 
644 
842 
1596 



SOME TYPICAL FARMS 

If any further proof is needed to show that the four points thus 
far discussed are the primary ones that determine the profits on 
most farms, it is furnished by the fact that, when these four points 
are given, one can estimate the labor income with approximate 
accuracy in about 80 per cent of the cases. There are many 
other things that may influence profits, but the fact is that, in the 
majority of cases, no other point does have an influence strong 
enough to overcome the effect of these four things. Of course, 
the other factors cause minor variations on all farms. A few 
examples from Jefferson County will illustrate the point. The 
average farm had 73 acres of crops, received $59 per cow from 
milk and its products, derived 22 per cent of the income from 
the sale of crops, and made a labor income of $609. 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 621 

Farm 1 : 

Acres of crops, 29 ; very poor 

Yields compared with average, 208 per cent ; excellent 
Receipts per cow from 11 cows, $116; excellent 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 21 per cent; excellent 
Labor income, $980 

This is the best record for either a general or a dairy farm 
with so small an area. It represents the best record of a " little 
farm well tilled." Splendid crops, splendid cows, good diversifi- 
cation, and all the work done by the farmer himself with two 
months of hired labor. It would be very hard to give any sugges- 
tions for improvement except that the farm be enlarged. Such 
a farmer should be able to make a labor income of $3000 a year 
if he bought or rented enough more land so that he could raise 
100 more acres of crops. He would then keep more cows and 
keep two men by the year. 

Farm 2 : 

Acres of crops, 21 ; very poor 

Yields compared with average, 211 per cent; excellent (hay, 3.3 tons; 

silage, 13 tons) 
Receipts per cow from 8 cows, $90 ; excellent 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 22 per cent ; excellent 
Labor income, $380 

This farmer had a little less land, had fewer and not quite so 
good cows, and kept a hired man by the year. For these reasons 
he made less than the preceding one. 

Farm 3 : 

Acres of crops, 133 ; good 

Yields compared with average, 75 per cent; poor (hay, 1.1 tons; oats, 

25 bushels) 
Receipts per cow from 20 cows, $95 ; excellent 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 1 6 per cent ; fair 
Labor income, $1661 

This farmer gets crops only three fourths as good as the aver- 
age, but with the large area he should make a fair profit from 
growing them. He sells part of his crops and gets good returns 
for what he feeds to cows. His crops are about one third as good 



622 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

as those of the first two farms, but the larger area much more 
than makes up the difference. With crops as good as his neigh- 
bors, he might readily bring his labor income to $2000 or more. 
The next farm shows what might be expected with better crops. 

Farm 4 : 

Acres of crops, no; excellent 

Yields compared with average, 142 per cent; excellent 
Receipts per cow from 26 cows, $96 ; excellent 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 1 9 per cent ; excellent 
Labor income, $2239 

This farm is excellent in every particular. We should expect it 
to make a labor income of over $2000, as it does. The reason why 
it makes more than the preceding farm is because of better crops. 

Farm 5 : 

Acres of crops, 109; excellent 

Yields compared with average, 1 20 per cent ; excellent 
Receipts per cow from 32 cows, $56] poor 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 4 per cent ; poor 
Labor income, minus $113 

This farmer made very good profits on his crops, of which he 
had a good acreage. But he fed these crops to cows that did not 
pay for their feed. If he had sold most of his crops he would 
have done well. The farm is too heavily stocked even for good 
cows. Fewer and better cows and the sale of more cash crops 
would readily make the labor income $1500, but as it is, the 
farmer did not even make interest on his capital. He paid for 
the privilege of working. 

Farm 6 : 

Acres of crops, 112 

Yields compared with average, 104 per cent 

Receipts per cow, $y6 

Percentage of receipts from crops, 27 per cent 

Labor income, $1035 

This farm is making much more than the average by having 
a little more crops and having cows much better than the average. 
The crop yields, returns per cow, and area in crops could all be 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 623 

increased to advantage. Unless better cows are kept, it might 
pay to sell more crops, but an improvement in cows would be 
better. The following farm shows what might be expected with 
a larger area in crops : 

Farm 7 : 

Acres of crops, 253 

Yields compared with average, 104 per cent (hay, 1.4 tons; oats, 37 

bushels ; silage, 1 2 tons) 
Receipts per cow from 30 cows, $75 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 48 per cent 
Labor income, $2859 

The primary difference from the preceding farm is in having 
over twice the area in crops. It makes over twice the labor 
income. The crop yields and the receipts per cow should be 
improved. The next farm shows what might be expected with 
better crops : 

Farm 8 : 

Acres of crops, 259 

Yields compared with average, 134 per cent 
Receipts per cow from 32 cows, $74 
Percentage of receipts from crops, 53 per cent 
Labor income, $3270 

In three counties, this is the second highest labor income found 
for any farmer who sold milk at wholesale prices. The one point 
in this farm that needs strengthening is the returns per cow. 
The farm that made a better labor income had better cows. 

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DAIRY FARMS 

In the 16 townships studied in Tompkins, Livingston, and 
Jefferson counties, there were 23 farms that sold milk at whole- 
sale and that made labor incomes of over $2000. The averages 
for these farms are given in Table 28. 

These farms had an average of 257 acres, 154 of which were 
in crops. The smallest one had 144 acres of land, with 81 acres 
in crops. The largest had 487 acres of land, with 286 acres in 
crops. They kept an average of 32 cows. On the average they 



624 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

furnished work for 3.2 men, including the operator. Their average 
capital was $19,728. 

They derived one third of their income from the sale of cash 
crops. None of them was an exclusively dairy farm. Only one 
derived less than one sixth of the income from cash crops. This 
one raised all the feed used, and sold $275 worth of crops. 

The crop yields averaged nearly one fifth better than the neigh- 
bors' crops. Only 6 of the 23 farms had crops poorer than the 
average. 

The receipts per cow from the sale of milk averaged $98. 
Only one farm had cows as poor as the average. 

The majority raised their own cows, but 1 1 of the 23 bought 
some cows. Four depended entirely on purchased cows, and four 
others purchased more cows than they raised. 

Six bought no feed of any kind. Nine bought less than $10 
worth per animal unit kept. Seven bought $10 to $20 worth 
and one bought over $20 worth per animal unit. The amount 
spent for feed averaged $7 per animal unit. All these farms are 
in regions well adapted to crop-raising. Dairymen nearer New 
York City buy more feed because the amount of land that is well 
adapted to raising feed is very limited. 

Eighteen of the 23 farms raised silage, 15 raised corn for 
grain, all raised hay, 21 raised oats, 13 raised wheat, 2 raised 
buckwheat, 5 raised cabbages, 10 raised beans, 11 raised four or 
more acres of potatoes. The average yields for the farms growing 
each of these crops are given in Table 28. Apples and some 
other crops were raised by a few of the 23 farmers. 

The amount of work accomplished per man and per horse was 
much above the average. The cost of machinery per acre of 
crops was lower than the average. The proportion of capital 
invested in houses and barns was lower than the average, as was 
the value of barns per animal unit. By comparing with Tables 8, 
9, 11, and 12, it will be seen that in each case these differences 
are due to the size of farm, as these farms correspond very closely 
with the average for the large farms. 

The primary difference between these successful farms and 
the average large farm is in the receipts per cow and the crop 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 625 

yields. Being large farms, they have the many advantages of such 
farms. They combine good production and diversification with 
these advantages. 

EFFICIENCY FACTORS 

Table 28 gives some of the more important efficiency factors 
for each county. It also includes similar factors for the 23 most 
successful dairy farms that sold market milk at wholesale. By 
the use of these and similar factors for other points, and with 
the other knowledge gained from the study of the records of 
large numbers of farms, it is possible to analyze the farm busi- 
ness and see which points are most in need of attention and 
which things are already good. When studying a particular 
farm, reference should also be made to the other tables in order 
to see whether the conditions on the farm are due to good or 
bad management or whether they are the natural results for a 
farm of the same size. Comparison is also made with farms 
having the same receipts per cow, crop yields, and other factors. 



CONCLUSIONS 

Of course, there are other important factors for success in 
farming, but on the great majority of farms the area in crops, 
the yield of these crops, the returns per animal, and the diver- 
sity of the business are the most important factors. Mistakes 
can, of course, be made on many other things. But the practical 
farmer who has these four factors good rarely makes such serious 
mistakes on other things as to fail to do well. 

For efficient farming in New York an investment of $10,000 
to $20,000 is usually necessary. In states where land is higher 
in price a larger amount is needed. Occasionally a farmer does 
well with a capital of $5000 or even less, but such instances are 
not numerous. With less than $10,000 it is usually necessary 
to work with very inadequate equipment, poor stock, and too 
little land. The capital need not all be owned by the farmer. 
The land and some of the stock may be furnished by a landlord, 
so that the tenant farmer need not have a very large capital. 



626 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



TABLE 28. EFFICIENCY FACTORS. AVERAGES FOR TOMPKINS, 

LIVINGSTON, AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, AND FOR 23 MOST 

SUCCESSFUL FARMS SELLING MILK AT WHOLESALE 









Twenty- 


Tompkins 


Livingston 


Jefferson 


three most 


County 


County 


County 


Successful 
Wholesale 1 
Milk Farms 


#445 


$666 


#609 


$2658 


$57i2 


#12,037 


$9006 


#19,728 


108 


149 


143 


257 


57 


93 


73 


154 


3-i 


5.6 


3-4 


7-4 


8 


9 


15 


32 


5 


9 


6 


8 


16 


23 


24 


47 


i-5 


2.2 


i-7 


3-2 


301 


479 


421 


942 


177 


337 


219 


55<> 


100 


100 


100 


119 


29.5 


39-6 


364 


48.0 




9.8 


9.9 


11.8 


32.4 


41. 1 


30.8 


43-o 


20.9 


18.5 


19.8 


23-5 


16.6 






21.4 


i-3 


1.42 


1.44 


1.59 


122 


106 


124 


153 




15.9 


18.0 


21.6 




6.18 


8-34 


10.3 
64708 


#53 


#57 


#59 


• #98 


#52 


#52 • 


#57 


#92 


#5.18 


#4-87 


#8.91 


#5-33 


#52 


#50 


#61 


#90 


40 


58 


22 


34 


38 


42 


43 


48 


11 


10 


H 


15 


201 


218 


248 


294 


18 


17 


21 


21 


57 


60 


64 


74 


#43 


#72 


#5i 


#62 


53 


62 


#51 


60 




$1658 




#2238 4 




H 




II 




#1603 




#26634 




J 3 




14 




#7o 




#57 


45 


27 




25 


#407 


#583 


#482 


#968 


#7.14 


#6.27 


$6.60 


#6.29 


3-6 


4.0 


3-o 


3-3 


#15 


#5i 


#10 


#39 


$0.26 


#0.55 


#0.14 


#0.25 



Labor income • 

Size of business 

Capital 

Area (in acres) 

Acres in crops 

Number of work horses and mules . . 

Number of cows 

Number of other animal units .... 

Total animal units 

Number of men including operator 2 

Productive units of man work .... 

Productive units of horse work . . . 
Production 

Crop yields compared with average (per 
cent) 

Corn (bushels per acre) 

Corn silage (tons) •. . . 

Oats (bushels) 

Wheat (bushels) 

Buckwheat (bushels) 

Timothy and clover hay (tons) .... 

Potatoes (bushels) 

Beans (bushels) 

Cabbage (tons) 

Pounds of milk sold per cow . ... . 

Receipts per cow from milk and its 
products 

Receipts per cattle unit 

Receipts per sheep 

Receipts per animal unit except work 

animals 

Percentage of receipts from crops . . . 
Efficiency in use of labor 

Crop acres per man 

Animal units per man 

Productive work units per man . . . 

Crop acres per horse 

Productive work units per horse . . . 
Efficiency in use of capital 

Value per acre 

Percentage of area in crops 

Value of houses 

Percentage of capital in houses . . . 

Value of barns . . 

Percentage of capital in barns .... 

Value of barns per animal unit ... 

Percentage of capital in all buildings . 

Value of machinery 

Value of machinery per acre of crops . 
Fertility 

Crop acres per animal unit 

Amount spent for fertilizers ... . 

Cost of fertilizers per acre of crops . . 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 627 

One who owns a farm may borrow part of his capital or may 
own some land and rent additional land. 

Most of the profitable general or dairy farms have 150 to 300 
acres of land, with 100 to 200 acres of crops. For these kinds 
of farming, 80 to 100 acres of crops is about the minimum area 
that will make good use of a fair equipment and the horses that 
go with it. Better equipment can be used and very much better 
use of it can be made with 150 acres of crops. With these types 
of farming, 600 acres is about the limit that can be run from 
one center, and it is not often that such a large area can be 
handled to advantage. When public welfare and the prosperity 
of the farmer are both considered, farms of 150 to 300 acres 
seem to be the best size for general and dairy farms. In regions 
where less than half the land is tillable a correspondingly larger 
area is needed. If a farmer does not have land enough and if 
he cannot buy more, it is often possible to rent additional land 
so that he can get full use of his horses, machinery, and labor. 

Some farmers whose crops are below the average do very 
well, but those who make the highest profits usually have crops 
that are better than their neighbors raise. Apparently it pays to 
raise crops at least a fifth better than the neighbors raise on the 
same soil. 

On dairy farms there is no factor more important than the 
receipts per cow. In the three counties studied, the cows must 
be about a half better than the average if they are to contribute to 
the success of the farm. The most successful farmers usually get 
returns from a half better to nearly twice as good as the average. 

A well-balanced combination of cash crops and live-stock usu- 
ally pays better than does either extreme. The best combination 
varies with the amount of money that the farmer has, with the 

1 Three other dairy farms that sold milk at wholesale and that made over $2000 
labor income were omitted. One derived nearly all its income from buying and 
selling cattle. One made most of the income from pure-bred stock. One was 
really a crop farm. 

2 Work of women and children is included on the basis of the time that it 
would take a man to do the same work. 

3 This is in addition to milk used in raising calves and milk used in the house. 
The total production probably averages nearly 7000 pounds. 

4 Values of houses and barns for 16 of the 23 farms. 



628 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

quality of the live-stock kept, and with the profits that come 
from crops. Even with very profitable live-stock it nearly always 
pays to have some cash crops. One should be very sure that he 
is right before he allows the sale of cash crops to drop below a 
fifth of his total sales. On the other hand, unless the returns 
from live-stock are very poor or unless the amount of money is 
very limited, it usually pays to get at least half of the income 
from stock. 

Ordinarily there should be three or four important products 
sold — that is, three or four products, no one of which is neg- 
lected because of the others. 

The highest excellence in one particular does not insure a 
good income. No matter how good the cows and crops, if the 
farm is too small the income is not likely to be large. With a 
large farm and good crops, the returns will not be good if the 
crops are fed to live-stock that brings poor returns. 

If a farmer is doing well in one of the above points but not 
so well in some of the others, he is likely to get greater returns 
for a given effort by strengthening the weak points rather than 
by spending more effort on the thing that is already good. It is 
better to have a well-balanced farm than to excel ever so much 
in one particular and neglect other equally important points. 

Other points often prevent the profits from rising as high as 
they might go if the entire business were well balanced. The 
wrong kind of farming is sometimes followed. Inconvenient 
buildings, a poorly-laid-out farm, or failure to plan the work 
ahead may lose time. There may be too much or too little 
equipment. Occasionally too much is invested in buildings or 
too many horses are kept, or any one of many other factors 
may be wrong. But in the great majority of cases, if the four 
factors here emphasized are good the other mistakes made by 
experienced farmers are not sufficient to prevent at least a fair 
profit. When these four points are good, a mistake in having an 
extra horse or in wasting some time will still leave a profitable 
farm, although not so profitable as it might otherwise have been. 

Every farmer will do well to compare -his farm with the aver- 
ages for Tompkins, Jefferson, and Livingston counties (p. 626). 



FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 629 

He should strive to have his farm better than the average in 
every point. Particular attention should be given to anything in 
which his farm falls below the average. A careful farmer may 
hope for crop yields a fifth better than the average and produc- 
tion per animal a half better than the average. With these con- 
ditions and a good-sized farm, he may hope for a labor income 
of two to five times the average after he gets his business estab- 
lished. In order to help the farmer in making such a study, 
the Department of Farm Management at Cornell University will 
send blanks on request to any farmer who desires to calculate 
his labor income. The record of the business for a year can be 
filled in and the blank be returned to the department. Various 
factors will be calculated and returned to the farmer for study, 
or the farmer may make these calculations for himself. 

The success of a farm is primarily dependent on the factors 
emphasized in this bulletin. But success of an individual is 
primarily dependent on the relation of his income to his family 
expenses. The highest financial success comes when a well- 
balanced, successful farm is combined with reasonable economy 
in living. 



THE FARMER'S INCOME 1 

By W. J. Spillman, Agriculturist in Charge of the Office of 
Farm Management 

INTRODUCTION 

IT HAS never been possible to secure accurate data on the 
average income of American farmers. It happens, however, 
that the data collected in the census of 19 10, combined with 
certain factors worked out in the experience of the Office of Farm 
Management in conducting farm-management surveys, render it 
possible to arrive at a sum which, if increased by two small 
unknown items, and decreased by one rather large but unknown 
item, would represent the farmer's net income. The two additions 
probably do not balance the one deduction, so that the actual net 
income is almost certainly less than the sum given in the table. 

LABOR INCOME OF FARMERS IN THE UNITED STATES 




2 

269 
276 

277 
277 



Item 



ber of farms 

Improved land 

Total farm investment 

Investment in farm buildings .... 
Investment in implements and machinery 



Total 



6,361,502 
478,451,750 acres 
$40,991,449,090 
$6,325,451,528 
$1,265,149,783 



Amount 
per Farm 



1 38. 1 acres 3 
75.2 acres 
$6443.67 £ 

#994-33 



1 Issued July 19, 1913. 

2 Abstract of Thirteenth Census. 

3 Average total area per farm. 

4 Four and one-half per cent in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Michigan, and Wisconsin ; 5 per cent in Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, 
Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, 
Ohio, and Indiana; 5 \ per cent elsewhere. 

5 Includes unpaid family labor and all the farm furnishes toward the family 
living except milk and cream. Does not include income from outside sources, 
and the amount paid for live stock bought must be deducted from this sum. 

630 



THE FARMER'S INCOME 



631 



LABOR INCOME OF FARMERS IN THE UNITED STATES (Continued) 

Receipts 



Item 



Total 



Amount 
per Farm 



Dairy products (excluding milk and cream used at 

home) 

Wool 

Mohair 

Eggs produced 

Poultry raised 

Honey and wax 

Domestic animals sold 

Domestic animals slaughtered 

Total value of all crops .... $5,487,161,223 
Corn $1,438,553,919 



Oats 

Barley 

Hay, etc 

Total value of crops 
used for feeding 

Feed sold . . . 



414,697,422 

92,458,571 

824,004,877 

2,769,714*789 
509,253,522 



Net value of crops fed 2,260,461,267 

Net value of crops 

Total gross farm income 



#596,413,463 

65,472,328 

901,597 

306,688,960 

202,506,272 

5,992,083 

1,562,936,694 

270,238,793 



3,226,699,956 



6,237,850,146 



$93-75 

10.29 

.14 

48.21 

31-83 

•94 

245.69 

42.48 



507.22 



50.55 



Expenses 



Labor 
Fertilizers 
Feed . . 



Maintenance of buildings (at 5 per cent) 4 . . . . 
Maintenance of implements and machinery (20 per 

cent) 

Taxes (0.6 per cent) 

Total • 

Miscellaneousexpenses (15 per cent of other expenses) 

Total expenses 



$651,611,287 
114,882,541 

299,839,857 
316,272,576 

253,029,956 
245,948,694 



1,881,584,911 
282,237,736 



2,163,822,647 



$102.43 

18.06 

^47-1 3 

39-78 
38.66 



295.78 
44-37 



340.15 



Summary 



Total gross income 

Total expenses 

Net farm income 

Interest on investment (at 5 per cent) 

Labor income 5 

Interest on mortgage ($1715 at 6 per cent) . . . 

Available for purchase of live stock and for family 

living 



$6,237,850,146 
2,163,822,647 



4,074,027,499 
2,049,572,454 



2,024,455,045 



: 98o.55 
34o.i5 



640.40 
322.18 



31S.22 
102.90 



537-50 



632 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The items of income about which no information is available are 
the value of the milk and cream consumed on the home farm and 
what the farmer earns for work outside his farm. In some regions 
this latter item is important. Thousands of farmers receive a large 
part of their income from labor done for others at times when they 
do not have profitable employment on their own farms. In other 
sections of the country this item is unimportant. 

The item of expenditure about which no information is obtain- 
able is the amount paid for the live stock purchased. This is a 
very important item in those sections of the country where the 
fattening of stock is practiced. It is also a considerable sum in 
dairy regions, but in regions where no live stock except work 
animals and a few head of miscellaneous stock are kept it is 
not very important. 

It is probable that the average working life of a horse is from 
eight to ten years. The average depreciation on work horses 
would then be from about 12 per cent to 10 per cent annually. 
Where work horses are the only animals kept, the expenditures 
for the purchase of live stock would therefore probably not 
average more than $15 or $20 per year per animal. It is impos- 
sible to give even a rough estimate of their cost in regions 
where live stock represent an important farm enterprise. The 
data presented in the accompanying table should be interpreted 
in the light of these omissions. 

THE AVERAGE FARM INVESTMENT 

The average area of the American farm in 19 10 was 138.1 
acres. Of this area 75.2 acres are classed as improved land. 
The average area devoted to crops is 49.77 acres. The total 
average investment per farm is $6443.67, the amount in farm 
buildings being $994.33 and that in implements and machinery 
$198.88. 

RECEIPTS 

The data for the receipts of the farmer are obtained entirely 
from the census returns. In this calculation the farm is credited 
with the total value of dairy products, wool, mohair, eggs and 



THE FARMER'S INCOME 633 

poultry, honey and wax, and domestic animals sold and slaugh- 
tered, with the exception of the milk and cream consumed on 
the farm where it is produced. This latter item is not given 
in the census returns. Whatever its value it should be added to 
the farm income. 

The farm is also credited in the table with the total value of 
all the crops produced except that part fed to live stock. This 
valuation is arrived at in the following manner : 

The amount of corn, oats, barley, hay, and forage sold is 
deducted from the total value of these crops, it being assumed 
that the remainder is fed on the place and accounted for in the 
live-stock product listed earlier in the table. The value of that 
portion of these crops which is fed to live stock is then deducted 
from the total value of all the crops, the remainder being credited 
to the farm. The farm is thus credited with the butter, cheese, 
eggs, poultry, honey, meat, fruits, vegetables, bread, etc., con- 
sumed on the farm where it is produced, and the value of these 
products thus consumed on the farm is included in the farm 
income. 

As stated already, any income the farmer may secure by work 
done outside his farm or from any other outside source is to be 
added to the net income given in the table. 

EXPENSES 

The only important item of expense not enumerated in the 
table is the sum expended annually in the purchase of live stock. 
Of the other expense items the amount for labor, fertilizers, and 
feed are given directly in the census returns. 

The expense for the maintenance of buildings is placed at 
5 per cent of the value of the buildings. This is only an estimate, 
but it is based on rather extensive investigations by the Office of 
Farm Management and is believed to be approximately correct. 

The cost of maintenance (including repairs) of implements and 
machinery is placed at 20 per cent of their cash value. This 
estimate is based on extensive investigations by the Office of 
Farm Management and agrees with the estimate in Warren's 



634 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

" Farm Management." Taxes are assumed to be six-tenths of 
i per cent as an average for the whole country. This item will, 
of course, vary in different sections. 

There are numerous other items of expense in the conduct of 
a farm. In a number of farm-management surveys conducted 
by the Office of Farm Management these remaining items have 
amounted on the average to about 15 per cent of other expen- 
ditures, and this is the factor assumed in the calculations here 
made. The total farm expenses, omitting the item of live stock 
purchased, are $340.15. 

THE FARM INCOME 

The farm income is obtained by deducting the total expenses 
from the total receipts, and amounts to $640.40. If we assume 

5 per cent as the rate of interest to which capital invested in 
agriculture is entitled, the farm income would then be distributed 
between interest and labor income as follows : interest on invest- 
ment, $322.18; labor income, $318.22. 

Out of the farm income as here calculated, increased by outside 
earnings and by the value of milk and cream consumed on the 
home farm, the farmer must pay interest on his indebtedness, 
pay for any live stock purchased, and provide the living expenses 
of himself and family. The average farm mortgage in this 
country, based on the number of all farms, is $1715, which at 

6 per cent per annum amounts to $102.90. This amount deducted 
from the farm income of $640.40 leaves $537.50 (to which must 
be added the value of milk and cream consumed on the home 
farm and any income from outside sources) as the sum to be 
used in the purchase of live stock, in living expenses, and in 
savings. 

In comparing the farmer's income with that of wage workers 
in any other industry it must be remembered that a majority of 
farmers are also capitalists. The interest on the farmer's capital 
thus constitutes a portion of this income, and this interest added 
to the small additional labor income he receives represents the 
sum available for his living. The labor income is undoubtedly 



THE FARMER'S INCOME 635 

smaller than it otherwise would be if the farmer did not also 
have the interest on his capital. Thus, we have found that in 
the better agricultural sections the labor income of tenants is 
considerably higher than that of farmers who work their own 
farms, although the latter have larger incomes than the tenants 
when we take into account the interest on their investment. 

A very large percentage of American farmers live on the 
interest of their investment and do not receive anything for their 
own wages. Where the farm is of considerable size, such farmers 
are able to live well, but on the small farm the interest on the 
investment is not sufficient to permit a high standard of living, 
so that the farmer must have some labor income in addition. 
The average income of the farmer could be increased by making 
the farms larger and thus reducing the number of individuals 
engaged in agricultural production. This could easily be done 
without decreasing production by better farm organization and the 
utilization of larger machinery and more power on the farm. 

An average in itself has little meaning. In the present case, 
however, it is reasonable to infer that at least half of the farm 
families in this country have incomes smaller than those given in 
the table. Individual farmers here and there have incomes larger 
than this average, but the facts presented in the table indicate 
that on the whole the income of farmers in this country, even 
when we include as a part of the income those things consumed 
on the farm where they are produced, is certainly not more than 
sufficient to pay 5 per cent on the investment and ordinary farm 
wages for the labor they do, and it is probably considerably less 
than this. 



PROFITS THAT FARMERS RECEIVE 

By E. H. Thomson, Agriculturist, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
United States Department of Agriculture 

(Reprinted from the Annals of the American Academy of Political and 
Social Science, November, 191 3) 

MANY wrong impressions prevail in regard to the real profits 
in farming. The consumer in the city believes that the 
farmer must certainly be growing rich. His impression is due to 
the fact that he has to pay high prices for the things the farmer 
sells. He little realizes the amount of capital and labor utilized in 
the production of these products, neither does he consider care- 
fully the difference between the price the farmer receives for the 
quart of milk or bushel of potatoes and what the consumer pays. 

Within the last few years the Office of Farm Management of 
the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agri- 
culture, has made certain investigations with the view of determin- 
ing the profits in farming and those factors that seem to control 
them. These investigations, called farm-management surveys, 
were made in representative farming areas in seven states, the 
results from which, with those found by the New York State 
College of Agriculture at Cornell, give an excellent indication of 
the profits farmers receive for their year's work. Each district 
surveyed usually comprised a group of three or four townships 
and included all the farms within the area selected. In this way 
average conditions were studied, otherwise there would be a tend- 
ency on the part of the enumerator to select certain farms and 
pass by others. AH data were collected by trained agricultural stu- 
dents working under the supervision of persons acquainted with the 
work and who exercised the utmost care to obtain accurate results. 

A large number of farmers keep some sort of accounts, but 
very few keep complete records whereby all data needed in the 

636 



PROFITS THAT FARMERS RECEIVE 637 

survey could be obtained. It has been the experience of those who 
had occasion to take a number of farm records that the farmer 
is able to give, and does give, a remarkably correct statement in 
regard to his financial business. As a rule a few important items 
constitute a large part of the farm receipts or expenses, and these 
items, when not well remembered, can often be checked up by 
the creamery or dealers' accounts. Where certain farmers will 
overestimate, others will underestimate, and the results averaged 
from 100 farms, or over, are approximately correct. An excellent 
illustration of the accuracy of results obtained in these surveys is 
given by Professor W. J. Spillman in Bureau of Plant Industry 
Bulletin 259 of the United States Department of Agriculture. 
He states as follows : 

Among the several hundred farms included in the survey were 135 that 
sold milk to creameries. Each of these farmers was asked to give as accurate 
an estimate as possible of the amount of money he had received for this milk. 
After the survey was partially finished it occurred to the investigator that it 
would be possible to secure a check on the accuracy of these estimates by ob- 
taining the actual figures from the creameries themselves. It was decided also 
to test in a similar manner the farmers' estimates of the quantity of milk each 
had sold to the creamery. The estimates as to quantity of milk sold were then 
obtained from the 79 farms visited after the decision had been reached to 
make this test. These farmers did not as a rule weigh their own milk and 
were not accustomed to dealing with weights as they were with sums of 
money ; it was to be expected, therefore, that the estimates of quantity of 
milk sold would be less accurate than those of money received, and this 
was the case, as will be shown below. After obtaining the estimates from 
the farmers, the actual figures, both for weights of milk sold and for money 
received, were secured from the creameries that had purchased the milk. 

Estimated pounds of milk sold (79 farms) .... 3,518,816 

Actual pounds of milk sold (79 farms) 3,487,320 

Difference 3M96 

Estimated value of milk sold (135 farms) .... $106,163.00 

Actual value of milk sold (135 farms) 106,155.50 

Difference $7-5o 

It is seen that the error in the quantity of milk sold is a little less than 1 
per cent of the whole. At the same time the individual estimates of pounds of 
milk sold were in error by amounts ranging from 40 per cent above to 36 per 
cent below the correct figures. In the total these errors tended to counter- 
balance each other, so that the sum of the estimates was quite accurate. In 



6 3 8 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



the estimates of money, in terms of which the farmer is accustomed to reckon, 
the error in the total is less than one-hundredth of I per cent. These instances 
will serve to show something of the measure of accuracy attainable in the 
results of the farm-management surveys. 

The results given in the following tables are only for one year 
in each region. The seasons and variation in prices will make 
an immense difference in the farmer's income, particularly in cer- 
tain districts. In the areas studied, it is believed the conditions 
were fairly normal in all respects. Possibly the results from Iowa 
are 10 to 15 per cent too low, due to dry weather during the 
early summer affecting the corn yield. In Chester County, Penn- 
sylvania, the incomes are possibly a little above normal, due 
to unusually high prices of hay and other roughage sold from 
the farm. 

In Table I is given the capital invested, receipts, expenses, 
farm income and labor income of 2090 farmers operating their 
own farms. By farm capital is meant the average of two inven- 
tories of land, buildings, live stock, machinery etc., taken at the 

TABLE I. AVERAGE CAPITAL, RECEIPTS, EXPENSES AND 
INCOME OF 2090 OWNER FARMERS 



State 



County 



Year 



S O 



2 < 

< H 



< & 
O U 






< o 



« 2 

O * 

CO o 

< y 



Indiana 



Illinois 



Iowa 



Michigan . 
Pennsylvania 

Oregon . . 



New Hampshire 
New York 1 



Average for 2090 farms 



J Clinton 

\ Tipton 

J Cass 

L Menard 

f Greene 

\ Guthrie 
Lenawee 
Chester 

J Marion 

\ Polk 
Hillsboro 
Tompkins 



1910 

1910 

1910 

1911 
1911 
1911 

1908 
1907 



123 

73 
77 

300 
378 

258 

266 
615 



i7>536 

23Y193 

11,756 
10,486 
HW 

5*350 
5>5 2 7 



1876 

5043 
2308 

1717 
2448 
1722 

1582 
1 146 



1866 



648 
1 134 

7i5 

978 
447 



1 187 

3 X 77 
145° 

1069 

I3H 
1007 

604 
699 



310 

622 

290 

481 
790 
261 

337 
423 



17,482 



2230 



917 



1313 



439 



1 Bulletin 295, Cornell University. 



PROFITS THAT FARMERS RECEIVE 639 

beginning and end of the farmer's fiscal year. Normal values 
(not assessed values) were used in all cases. The farm receipts 
represent the income from the sales of all products, labor per- 
formed by the farmer off the farm and gain from increased 
investment. No gain was allowed for increase in value of land 
unless justified by new buildings, drainage or other permanent 
improvements. The farm expenses include all such items as feed, 
seed, repairs, live stock, labor, taxes and insurance. In case the 
farmer's sons worked, but were not actually paid, the value of 
their labor was charged the same as if they had been hired. No 
charge is included in the expenses for the owner's labor, as his 
wages are represented in the labor income. 

The difference between the farm receipts and expenses is 
called the farm income ; this represents the combined earnings 
of the farmer's capital and his own labor. Assuming that tfie use 
of capital is worth 5 per cent and deducting the interest at this 
rate from the farm income, gives the farmer's labor income or 
the amount he receives for his year's work. This labor income 
represents the farmer's wages and profits, that is, if the farmer's 
labor income is $439, and his labor is worth but $300, his profits 
are $139. In other words, it is the amount left for his own labor 
and for profit in the business. In addition he had the use of 
a house to live in, and all those products furnished by the farm 
towards the family living, the most important of which are milk, 
eggs, meat, garden vegetables and fruit. In the farm receipts, 
no credit is given for these items consumed by the farmer and 
his family. 

If the farmer is free of debt, thereby having no interest to pay, 
he will have in addition to his labor income the interest on his 
investment to use for living and savings. In regions where the 
farm capital is large, such as Illinois and other corn-belt states, 
the farmer will be able to live comfortably and yet have a minus 
labor income, the interest alone being sufficient to give him a 
good living. In fact many farmers live on the interest of their 
investment rather than on the real profits of their farms. Smaller 
farms and cheap land mal^e the average farm investment much 
less in New York and New England. On such farms the amount 



640 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



(farm income) available to the farmer to pay interest on mortgages 
and for living expenses is less than $700. 

In Table II is given the distribution of labor incomes for the 
farmers in six states. Out of 1209 farmers who operated their 
own farms 5 per cent, or one in twenty, received over $2000 as 
a labor income. Twenty-three and six-tenths per cent failed to 
make a plus labor income. 

Under normal conditions in the Northern states we are led to 
believe that about one-third of the farmers make less than $100 
a year after the interest is counted on their investment. Severe 
weather conditions or low prices often result in heavy losses, and 
in many years only a few men receive a plus income. This condi- 
tion is especially liable to occur in regions of specialized agriculture. 

TABLE II. DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR INCOMES OF 1209 FARMS 
OPERATED BY OWNERS 





States 


Number of 
Farmers 


Number making 

Minus Labor 

Incomes 


Number making 
Incomes between 

$1 AND $400 


Number making 

Incomes over 

$2000 


Indiana 

Illinois 

Iowa . 

Michigan 

Pennsylvania .... 
Oregon 


123 

73 

11 

300 

378 
258 


3* 

27 

30 

54 

42 

100 


52 
16 

19 

105 

84 

80 


2 

8 
2 
8 

3 1 
11 


Total 


1209 


285 


356 


62 


Per cent of total . 




23.6 


29.4 


5- 1 



PROFITS THAT TENANTS RECEIVE 

Approximately one farm in every three is rented (37 per cent 
in 1 9 10, United States census), hence it is important that we 
know what the tenant farmer is receiving for his work. Unfor- 
tunately it is often assumed that all tenants are poor farmers and 
no credit is given them for the part they play in the agriculture 
of this country. 

From a careful study of over 700 tenant farms, we are forced 
to conclude that the average tenant is a capable worker, utilizing 



PROFITS THAT FARMERS RECEIVE 



641 



both land and equipment in an efficient manner. Naturally, not 
owning the land, we cannot expect him to use the greatest of 
care in maintaining the fertility. However, it would seem that 
the fault lies with the farm owner in not caring to give the time 
and supervision necessary to establish a proper system of rental. 
In Table III are given the average capital, receipts, expenses 
and labor income, of 722 tenant farmers found in the same dis- 
tricts as the farmers operating their own land whose incomes 
are shown in Table I. Tenants working under both share and 
cash rental systems are included. 

TABLE III. THE AVERAGE CAPITAL, RECEIPTS, EXPENSES 
AND INCOME OF 722 TENANT FARMERS 



State 


County 


Year 


1 1 

1 g 




p U 


it 




« a 

s 

M O 
< U 


Indiana 


f Clinton 
^ Tipton 


1910 


83 


1758 


1335 


492 


843 


755 


Illinois 


J Cass 
\ Menard 


1910 


71 


2867 


2257 


975 


1282 


"39 




J Greene 
\ Guthrie 


1910 


93 


2667 


1605 


755 


850 


717 






Michigan 

Pennsylvania 

Oregon 


Lenawee 
Chester 

J Marion 
X Polk 


1911 
1911 
1911 


i53 
124 

64 


1562 
2244 
2047 


mi 

1929 
2068 


45o 

1026 

940 


66l 

903 
1128 


583 

791 

1026 


New York 1 


Tompkins 


1907 


134 


1281 


814 


37i 


443 


379 


Average for 722 farms 








2061 


1588 


7i5 


873 


770 



Inasmuch as land and buildings constitute from 75 per cent 
to 90 per cent of the total farm capital, the tenant's investment 
is necessarily small, there being very few tenants having over 
$5000 in working equipment. Hence the tenant's labor income 
must be large enough to give him his living, the interest on his 
investment being a very small item. 

We have seen how a farm owner can make a minus labor in- 
come and still live, but the tenant must make wages or he cannot 

1 

1 Bulletin 295, Cornell University. 



642 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



live. The average labor income of the 722 tenants is $770, a 
much higher figure than one might expect. In these same studies 
it is found that the tenant's income is in almost direct proportion 
to the capital he has invested. This is most encouraging, in that 
a tenant can rise to the position of a farm owner by using his 
accumulating savings to operate larger farms until he has sufficient 
funds with which to buy. 

A tenant's labor income is influenced by the kind of lease he 
has. Under normal conditions, those tenants who rent on a cash 
basis receive better incomes than those renting on a share basis. 
Under this system, however, the landlord gives less supervision 
and expects a lower rate of income on his investment. The ten- 
ant takes more chances, and in good years has possibilities of an 
excellent income, while in poor years he may lose everything. 

In Table IV is given the distribution of the tenants' income 
for 588 farms in six states. It is noted that 5.6 per cent of 
them make over $2000 as a labor income. One-fourth of them, 
or 25 per cent, make between $100 and $400. Practically none 
is making a minus labor income. 

TABLE IV. DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR INCOMES, 588 FARMS 
OPERATED BY TENANTS 





States 


Number of 
Farmers 


Number making 

Minus Labor 

Incomes 


Number making 

Incomes between 

$1 AND $400 


Number making 
Incomes over 

$2000 


Indiana 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Michigan 

Pennsylvania .... 
Oregon 


83 
71 

93 
153 
124 

64 


6 


3 
3 

2 


26 
II 
28 
41 

3 1 
10 


3 
9 

5 

6 
9 


Total 


588 


9 


i47 


33 


Per cent of total . 




i-5 


25 


5-6 





PROFITS THAT FARMERS RECEIVE 



643 



PROFITS THAT LANDLORDS RECEIVE 

In Table V is given the capital, receipts, expenses and net 
income for the landlords of the 722 tenant farms given in 
Table III. On the whole, the net returns on investment are 
low, considering the time and supervision needed. On the other 
hand, the rise in land values within the last twelve years has 
given the owners a very substantial profit in itself. In regions 
where land values are stationary, we would not expect landlords 
to be satisfied with an average income of 4 per cent. 

TABLE V. THE AVERAGE CAPITAL, RECEIPTS, EXPENSES AND 

INCOME OF THE LANDLORDS OF 723 FARMS OPERATED 

BY TENANTS 











< 


C/3 


t/5 


z% 


Z 1 Z 

W Z W 


State 


County 


Year 


a fe a 


u a. 


sn 


s 


^ 8 


O m S 








ss £ 


> < 






ta z 


w ^ 


Indiana 


J Clinton 
\ Tipton 


1910 


83 


18,423 


1002 


351 


651 


3-53 


















Illinois 


f Cass 
^ Menard 


1910 


71 


36,479 


1538 


213 


1325 


3-64 


















Iowa 


f Greene 
\ Guthrie 


1910 


93 


20,728 


1014 


354 


660 


319 






Michigan 


Lenawee 


1911 


153 


I2,2l8 


856 


231 


625 


5-" 


Pennsylvania 


Chester 


1911 


124 


9,785 


1063 


349 


7H 


7-3° 


Oregon 


C Marion 
\Polk 


1911 


64 


24,090 


873 


2 59 


614 


2.6 


New York 1 


Tompkins 


1907 


13s 


5,242 


573 


138 


435 


8-3 


Average for 723 farms 








18,138 


989 


271 


718 


4.0 



From a careful study of all available data, we are led to believe 
that the farmer is receiving only nominal wages and interest on 
his capital. In certain years he makes good profits, but adverse 
weather conditions or low prices in one year will often wipe out 
the returns of a period of years. Again, the agricultural districts 
which have been studied are much above the average of the 
general country, so that the income of the ordinary farmer in all 

1 Bulletin 295, Cornell University. 



644 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

probability would be less than that indicated by the data given in 
the foregoing tables. 

The only available data on this point, and which lead us to 
the same conclusion, are the paper by Professor W. J. Spillman 
on " The Farmer's Income," issued in Circular 132 of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. 

These same farm-management studies clearly demonstrate a 
wide difference in the efficiency of farm organization. Certain 
principles, such as the organization of the farm enterprises to 
secure the maximum use of labor and uniform good quality of 
business, are of the utmost importance. Untold possibilities are 
within the reach of the ordinary farmer through more efficient 
organization of his entire farm business without any increase 
in capital or labor. It is in this direction that the farmer can 
increase his profits, without raising the price of products sold. 



VI. AGRARIAN MOVEMENTS IN THE 
UNITED STATES 

THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 

By Charles W. Pierson 

i - 
(From the Popular Science Monf/ily, ^ecember, 1887. Reprinted by 

permission of D. Appleton and Company) 

SOME wise men of the press are saying that the Knights of 
Labor are like the Grangers. As the exact points of resem- 
blance are not stated, the assertion serves merely to call up a 
recollection of the unique secret society, which, a dozen years 
ago, seeme*d far more powerful than ever the Knights of Labor 
were. The Grange still lives, but its glory is departed, and its 
history is recorded only in the distorted statements of partisans 
and of misinformed review- writers. 

{ In the latter part of 1 868 certain Minnesota farmers received 
a printed sheet which began as follows : 

In response to numerous inquiries in regard to our order, this circular is 
issued. The order was organized by a number of distinguished agriculturists 
of various states of the Union at Washington in December, 1 867, and since 
then has met with most encouraging success, giving assurances that it will soon 
become one of the most useful and powerful organizations in the United States. 
Its grand object is not only general improvement in husbandry, but to increase 
the general happiness, wealth, and prosperity of the country. 

As an aid in accomplishing its author's design, this circular was 
certainly a success. As a statement of truth it was a conspicuous 
failure. Instead of having " met with most encouraging success," 
the order had scarcely been heard of ; while the " distinguished 
agriculturists " who had " organized " it comprised one fruit-grower 
and six government clerks, equally distributed among the Post- 
Office, Treasury, and Agricultural departments. Of these seven 

645 



646 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Immortal Founders, as enthusiastic Grangers were calling them 
a few years later, six are living. Nevertheless, it is difficult to 
determine just how much of the plan and its execution was due 
to each. The truth seems to be about as follows: In 1866 one 
O. H. Kelley, a clerk in the Agricultural Department, was sent 
by the Commissioner of Agriculture on a tour of inspection 
through the Southern States. Impressed with the demoralization 
of the farming population, he hit upon the idea of organization 
for social and educational purposes, as a means for these people 
to better their condition. An ardent Mason, he naturally thought 
of an organization similar to the Masonic, in whose ritual, secrecy, 
and fraternity he saw the secret of that permanence which all 
agricultural societies had failed to attain. A niece in Boston, to 
whom he first mentioned the idea, recommended that women 
be given membership, thus originating an important feature. On 
returning to Washington, Kelley took the other six immortals 
into his confidence, and the seven set about developing the plan 
and constructing a ritual. It would be a long story to tell how, 
by two years' labor in the intervals of their regular work, they 
constructed a constitution providing for a national, state, county, 
and district organization, and a ritual with seven degrees ; how 
the names — Patrons of Husbandry for the body in general and 
Grangers for the subordinate chapters — were finally hit upon, 
the latter being taken, not on account of its etymological meaning 
(Latin granum), but from the name of a recent novel. Suffice 
it to say that on December 4, 1867, a day still celebrated as the 
birthday of the order, the seven assembled, and, with an assurance 
almost sublime, solemnly organized themselves as the " National 
Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry." There was none to dis- 
pute the title, and they enjoyed it alone for the next five years. 
It is hard to tell just what were the expectations of these men. 
Kelley has been called everything from an unselfish philanthro- 
pist to a scheming adventurer. One can not but admire the 
pluck with which he persevered through great discouragements, 
and the unselfish spirit in which he and his fellow-workers sur- 
rendered control of the movement when it had become a power in 
the land. Their first step was to organize a mock Grange among 



THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 647 

their fellow-clerks and their wives, to experiment with the ritual. 
The experiment proving satisfactory, Kelley resigned his clerkship 
and started out to proclaim the Grange to the world, armed only 
with a few dollars and a sort of introductory letter from the other 
six to mankind at large. 

He was not a success as a lecturer. Moreover, he made the 
mistake of laboring in the larger towns, instead of in the country. 
The four or five Granges that he coaxed into life at once pro- 
ceeded to die, and he finally reached Minnesota penniless, but 
not discouraged. Even while the six at Washington were be- 
coming faint-hearted, and writing to him that the landlady was 
pressing them grievously for hall-rent, and that it would be wise 
to give up the whole business, he could issue the circular with 
which I began, dilating upon the success of the order and the 
distinguished agriculturists at Washington who founded it. At 
his home, near Itasca, he worked on furiously, now dodging a 
creditor, again obliged to postpone answering letters for want of 
means to buy postage-stamps, till finally signs of success began 
to appear. He had organized a few Granges in Minnesota, and 
was able to detect a growing interest in other states. The prime 
necessity now was to encourage this feeble beginning, and by all 
means to keep it under the delusion that it was part of a power- 
ful national organization. To this end every cent that could be 
earned or borrowed was used in distributing photographs of the 
founders, along with a mass of circulars and documents purport- 
ing to come from the national office at Washington. Every 
important question was ostensibly referred by Kelley to the exec- 
utive committee at the same place, and the decisions and power 
of this mythical body were held in great awe by the patrons. 
But other men were becoming interested and going to work. In 
Minnesota they were able to organize a State Grange, having 
mustered the fifteen district Granges required by the constitution. 
Two years later the State Grange of Iowa was organized, and its 
Worthy Master crossed the country to attend what the founders 
were pleased to call the lt Fiftieth Annual Session of the National 
Grange." He was the first member of the order to meet with 
the seven. What he thought on ascertaining the real state of 



648 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

things is not recorded. However, he did not give up the work, 
and later he became Worthy Master of the National Grange. 
The order kept growing. At the sixth annual session, held at 
Georgetown in January, 1873, there were delegates from eleven 
states, and four women were present; 1074 Granges had been 
organized during the year. The founders now gave up their offices, 
not even reserving the right to vote, and delivered over the 
results of six years' labor to their successors. For the first time, 
the greatest of farmers' societies was in the hands of farmers ! 

The next two years were years of astounding growth — a 
growth almost unparalleled in the history of secret organizations, 
and resembling that of the Know-Nothings twenty years before. 
At the end of 1872 about 1300 Granges had been organized. 
In the year 1873, 8668 more were added; and in 1874, 11,941, 
making a total of almost 22,000, with an average membership of 
40. Some idea of the magnitude of these figures may be gained 
from the fact that the whole number of lodges of Masons and 
Odd Fellows in the world is estimated at about 20,000, with an 
average membership of 40. The Order was represented in every 
state except Rhode Island (which has never found room for it). 
It had been established in the Indian Territory, whence it ap- 
pealed for help to the National Grange because the governor 
of the Chickasaw nation looked on it with suspicion, and had 
ordered all Grangers out of the Chickasaw country. It had 
taken root in Canada, where, a few years later, there were 860 
subordinate Granges. One deputy introduced it into England ; 
others were laboring in France and Germany ; and inquiries and 
invitations were coming even from Australia and Tasmania. 

Grange treasuries were overflowing. In 1873 and 1874 the 
dues to the National Grange alone, according to the official state- 
ment, amounted to $348,532.20. The press was discussing the 
new order with alarm. Legislative committees were scurrying 
about the country to see what could be done for the farmer. In 
the words of the New York Nation, '■ the farmer was the spoiled 
child of our politics." The House of Representatives at Wash- 
ington was overawed at the new power that was apparently rising 
in politics, and those who claimed, for the most part falsely, to 



THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 649 

represent the movement enjoyed an astonishing influence. Among 
other legislation secured by these men, one bill was rushed through 
for printing and distributing to the farmers certain agricultural 
documents, at an expense of $500,000 ! W. W. Phelps opposed 
it, only to be bitterly attacked on the score of sympathy with 
monopolists and lack of sympathy with farmers. One fervid 
orator from Kansas went over his whole record for proofs of 
this, and alleged many damaging facts — among them that he 
was rich, that he was interested in banks and railroads, and that 
he had been graduated with honor from Yale College. " These 
Grangers," exclaimed the orator, "mean business; . . . they are 
chosen to be the sovereigns of the mightiest republic of earth." 
Various cities strove for the honor of having the National Grange 
offices located within their limits, one offering to give a splendid 
building, another, to furnish necessary ofhce-room and an annuity 
of $5000 for five years, but the Grange was rich and indepen- 
dent in those days. At the seventh annual session held at 
St. Louis in 1874, a declaration of purposes was adopted which 
still remains the official statement. I can quote but fragments 
of this creditable document : 

We shall endeavor ... to enhance the comforts and attractions of our homes, 
and strengthen our attachment to our pursuits ; to foster co-operation ; . . . 
to diversify our crops ; to condense the weight of our exports, selling less 
in the bushel and more on hoof and in fleece ; to discountenance the credit 
system, the mortgage system, the fashion system, and every other system 
tending to prodigality and bankruptcy. We propose meeting together, buying 
together, selling together. We wage no aggressive warfare against any other 
interests whatever ; ... we hold that transportation companies are necessary 
to our success, that their interests are intimately connected with our interests, 
and that harmonious action is mutually advantageous. We are not enemies of 
railroads. In our noble order there is no communism, no agrarianism, we em- 
phatically assert the truth taught in our organic law that the Grange is not a 
political or party organization. No Grange, if true to its obligations, can dis- 
cuss political or religious questions, nor call political conventions, nor nominate 
candidates, nor even discuss their merits in its meetings. 

It is to be noted that this is 1874, at the height of the "Anti- 
Railroad " and " Farmers' party " excitement. 

The Grange had now reached the zenith of its power. One 
year later, in the stormy meeting held at Charleston, a measure 



650 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

was passed for the distribution of the surplus revenue of the 
National Grange, which may be said to mark the beginning of 
Grange decadence. But a consideration of this decadence may 
well be postponed for a time. 

Any discussion of the causes of the Grange's astonishing 
growth has been deferred to this point, in order that they may 
be considered in connection with the railroad legislation of the 
early seventies, with which the Grange, to most minds, is so 
entangled. The spirit of enterprise following the war found vent 
in developing the resources of the upper Mississippi Valley. 
Emigration from Europe thither increased greatly after the close 
of hostilities, and the tide was. swelled by men turned adrift in 
the disbanding of the armies. The cry was for railroads to open 
the country, and the speculative spirit, induced by an inflated 
currency, was quick to second it. Land-grants of enormous extent 
were made by the general and state governments^ and Western 
municipalities vied with each other in bonding themselves to 
offer inducements to railroad-building. In the years 1 865-1 871, 
$500,000,000 was invested in Western railroads. D. C. Cloud, 
in his " Monopolies and the People," makes the statement that 
" one acre out of every eight and a half of the entire area of 
Iowa has been given away to railroad corporations. . . . There 
were land grants, subsidies, bonds, subscriptions, and taxes to the 
amount of five per cent of our entire valuation in one year." 
Every farmer wanted a railroad, and every one with any pre- 
tense to economic knowledge wanted two, to keep down charges 
by competition ! Railroads and population reacted on each other. 
The consequence was, that both railroads and population moved 
too far west, accumulating debt in the inflated currency as they 
went. There was little traffic for the railroads in anything but 
grain. So long as the price of this was high, all went well, and 
they were suffered to go on their reckless way with little remark 
save a clamor for more competing roads where the pinch of 
discrimination was felt. But conditions changed. The price of 
wheat began to show the effect of the enormous increase of pro- 
duction. The demand caused by the Prusso- Austrian and Franco- 
German wars ceased. The grasshopper became a burden. The 



THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 651 

farmers, who had gone into debt in flush times, felt the pinch of 
an appreciating currency. A villainous tariff, increasing the cost 
of transportation and of everything they bought, conspired with 
the rest to produce unavoidable distress. Add to all this the 
crisis of 1873, and it is not strange that there was a " Farmers' 
Movement." s Y Organize ! " was the universal cry, and there were 
as many reasons for it, in the farmer's mind, as he had needs 
and grievances, fancied or real, and these were legion. Owing to 
the change in economic conditions, wheat could no longer pay 
transportation charges and be profitable. According to the report 
of the Senate Committee on Transportation to the Seaboard, the 
average price of wheat in Chicago fell thirty-three cents from 
1868 to 1872, while the charge for transportation to the East fell 
but nine cents. The farmer was forced to feed his grain to his 
cattle or use it for fuel. In this state of things the railroad 
loomed up before him as the only obstacle between himself and 
his hungry Eastern brother, whose needs he was anxious to sup- 
ply for a fair compensation. A toll for transportation exceed- 
ing the price he received seemed a priori a monstrous extortion. 
To aggravate matters, the railroads were run with unparalleled 
short-sightedness. The term ''railroad official" was a synonym 
for insolence. There had been great corruption in the building 
of many of the roads, and such imperfectly comprehended terms 
as " Credit Mobilier," "watered stock," and "Wall Street specu- 
lation," were in everybody's mouth. Most of the stock was owned 
in the East and in Europe, and the expression "absentee owner- 
ship " began to arouse somewhat the same feeling as in Ireland. 
The Nation pleaded for the widows and orphans who were kept 
from want only by their railroad-stock, but the farmer replied 
that the stock was in the hands of such orphans as Commodore 
Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, who could look out for themselves. 
Add the fact that the railroads felt the hard times as much as 
the farmers ; that for very self-preservation the traffic at compet- 
ing points was so furiously fought for as to make rates ruinously 
low, while each road extorted all it could squeeze where there was 
no competition, and it will not seem strange that the " Farmers' 
Movement " developed, on one side, into a political organization 



652 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

to fight railroads. But this was not the Grange. A misconcep- 
tion exists on this point. In everything published on the subject, 
the anti-railroad movement is called the Granger movement; the 
resulting legislation, the Granger legislation ; the cases that arose, 
the Granger cases. It must be granted that the same farmers 
often were engaged in both movements, and that certain sub- 
ordinate parts of the Grange did sometimes disobey their organic 
law so far as to engage as bodies in the agitation, chiefly by 
memorializing legislatures. It was impossible to control com- 
pletely the rank and file of such a vast order. But, with these 
reservations, the Grange, as an organization, took no part in the 
anti-railroad agitation. The two were not cause and effect, but 
parallel effects of the same general causes. In the way of proof 
the "Declaration of Purposes" of 1874 has already been quoted, 
to the effect that the Grange is not hostile to railroads, and that 
all political action and discussion is totally excluded. The pub- 
lished proceedings of the National Grange show the same thing. 
In 1874 the executive committee reported: "Unfortunately for 
the Order, the impression prevails to some extent that its chief 
mission is to fight railroads." In 1875 a resolution from Texas 
favoring railroad legislation was suppressed. In 1873 the Master 
of the Minnesota State Grange, being informed that certain 
Granges • in his jurisdiction had appointed delegates to a state 
anti-railroad convention, ordered the offending Granges to recall 
their delegates. Congressman D. W. Aiken, of South Carolina, 
long a member of the National Executive Committee, said in an 
address four years ago : 

Frequently had the Grange to bear the odium of other men's sins. . . . 
For instance, there existed in Illinois and Wisconsin, and other sections of 
the Northwest, agricultural clubs whose province seemed to be to wage war 
against transportation companies. Anathemas were hurled upon the Grange 
for making this attack, whereas every Patron of Husbandry knew that the 
Grange as such was not a participant in the fight from beginning to end. 

It may seem surprising that such an error should have arisen, 
but it is not inexplicable. The newspapers first applied the name 
" Grangers " to Western farmers in general, and consequently to 



THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 653 

those fighting railroads. From this it was an easy step to the 
assertion that the Grange was the fighting organization. There 
were some exceptions. The Tribune sent a special correspondent 
West, and afterward published a "Farmers' Extra," in which it 
is expressly recognized that the Grange is not fighting railroads, 
though some Grangers are. The Times published the same dis- 
covery with the comment that the general impression on this 
point was a mistaken one. But the Nation, which talked loudest 
of all, and the press in general, made no such distinction. It is 
not strange that Mr. C. F. Adams and other writers on railroads 
have followed this leading, as it was of no consequence to them 
whether the Western agitators were known as V Grangers " or by 
any other name. The principal difficulty is with those who wrote 
from the farmers' standpoint. It can only be said that they wrote 
before the railroad legislation had been given a fair trial, and 
that they wanted to claim for the order the credit of what looked 
like a success. Their books, in general, are of a hortatory and 
prophetic rather than historical character. 

From this point of view it may seem foreign to our subject 
to discuss the railroad agitation further. Its intimate connection 
with the Granger movement, however, and the casual relation 
between the two in the public mind, may furnish excuse. In 
1867, when the Grange was founded at Washington, most of the 
Western states were still passing laws to facilitate municipal and 
other aid to railroads. A few, however, were beginning to take 
the alarm, and about 1867 six made feeble attempts to check the 
growing abuses ; from Iowa, which merely affirmed the full lia- 
bility of the railroads as common carriers, to Ohio, where 
a " commissioner of railroads and telegraph " was provided for. 
The feeling grew during the next three years. Illinois, for 
example, passed an act in 1869 providing that "all railroad cor- 
porations shall be limited to a just, reasonable, and uniform toll." 
These facts are mentioned to show not tangible results, for they 
were not attained, but the growth of public feeling prior to the 
adoption of the new state constitution by Illinois in 1870, which, 
with the bills immediately following, first awakened the country 
at large to the fact that something was brewing among the 



654 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Western farmers. The constitution of 1870 declares: "Rail- 
roads . . . are hereby declared public highways, and the General 
Assembly shall . . . pass laws establishing reasonable maximum 
rates. . . . No municipality shall ever become subscriber to the 
capital stock of any railroad." The attack was followed up in 
1 87 1 by an act establishing a system of maxima, and providing 
for a board of commissioners to put to each company forty-one 
specified questions and as many more as their ingenuity might 
devise. The railroads, relying on the Dartmouth College case, 
declared the law unconstitutional and refused to obey it. In the 
suits that arose, Judge Lawrence, of the state supreme court, 
pronounced the fixing of maxima by statute unconstitutional with 
reference to the new state constitution, expressing no opinion on 
the point claimed by the railroads — that this constitution itself 
was contrary to the clause in the United States Constitution in 
regard to impairing the obligation of contracts. Coming up for 
re-election, Judge Lawrence was defeated, to the astonishment of 
himself and everybody else, by a combination of farmers. Em- 
boldened by success, the farmers held nominating conventions, 
and managed to elect several circuit judges, and county tickets 
in nearly half the counties. A great mass-meeting was held 
at Springfield during the session of the legislature in that city, 
to urge upon it the necessity of a new railroad bill. The legis- 
lature, nothing loath, passed the law of 1873, avoiding the point 
made by Lawrence against that of 1871 by providing for " reason- 
able" instead of "maximum" rates, and making it the duty of 
the commissioners to draw up a schedule of such rates. Provision 
was made that they be ideally unfit for the task in the following 
section : V No person shall be appointed who is in any way 
connected with any railroad company, or who is, directly or 
indirectly, interested in any stock or bond." It is no wonder 
that their schedule was as fearfully and wonderfully made as a 
United States tariff list. The Nation called it "a crazy table of 
rates drawn up by a mob of ignorant and excited politicians." 
The system had one advantage, however, over a cast-iron set of 
maxima fixed by statute. It could be modified or made inopera- 
tive as the information of the commissioners grew, and this is 



THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 655 

what was done in Illinois. Early in 1873 the "American Cheap 
Transportation Company " was organized at the Astor House, 
and later in the year two other great mass-meetings were held in 
Illinois. They accomplished only a great waste of pyrotechnic 
eloquence. Demagogues and sharpers had taken control, and 
the real movers had quietly dropped out. 

In spite of the assertions of Mr. C. F. Adams and others, it 
can be shown that the Grange was not responsible for the 
Illinois legislation. When the constitution of 1870 and the law 
of 1 87 1 were passed, the Grange had scarcely a foothold in the 
State. The State Grange was organized in March, 1872. The 
real organ of agitation was the • < State Farmers' Association," 
whose subordinate lodges were called " Farmers' Clubs." Its 
president, W. C. Flagg, testified before the Windom committee 
in 1873 that he was not a Granger, that his organization was 
an open and political one, while the Grange was secret and 
non-political, disavowing and preventing, as far as it could, 
any political action. By 1874 seven states had passed so-called 
V Granger " laws, either fixing maxima or providing for a com- 
mission to make out a schedule of rates. The Iowa bill, on the 
former model, devoted twenty-six pages to a classification of 
freight. But all this was surpassed in Wisconsin. In 1873 there 
appeared in the state senate a certain Potter, from Wautoma, 
Waushara County. It was said that his county did not contain a 
mile of railroad, and he probably knew as little about railroads as 
any other man in the legislature ; at least, to believe the contrary 
would require a very pessimistic view of Wisconsin intelligence. 
March 11, 1874, the famous "Potter Bill" became a law. 
Mr. Potter is said to have made it up by calling for suggestions 
and incorporating those most disadvantageous to the railroads. 
At any rate, it was bad enough at first, and the railroad interest 
worked to increase its enormities, hoping to get it into a shape 
that they could defeat. They were mistaken. The bill passed, 
and the governor celebrated some speedy victories in the courts 
by firing cannon. 

Meanwhile cases were before the Supreme Court on the validity 
of all this legislation. The court recognized the gravity of the 



656 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

question and reserved its decision, affirming the constitutionality 
of the laws, for more than a year after the test case (Munn v. 
Illinois) was argued. The gist of the decision is in the following 
words : 

When one devotes his property to a use in which the public has an interest, 
he, in effect, grants the public an interest in that use, and must submit to be 
controlled by the public for the common good to the extent of the interest he 
has thus created. 

The decisions in this, and the six other " Granger " cases, were 
pronounced by Chief-Justice Waite, Justices Field and Strong 
dissenting. 

In the courts the farmers were victorious. But, unfortunately, 
the Supreme Court does not pass upon economic laws, and to 
these the movement had already succumbed. By the time the 
cases were decided, in 1 876-1 877, scarcely one of the statutes in 
question remained in force. In the second year under the Potter 
law, no Wisconsin road paid a dividend, and only four paid 
interest on their bonds. Foreign capitalists refused to invest 
further in the state. On the recommendation of the governor, 
the very men who had passed the law hurriedly repealed it. In 
the next year Mr. Potter faded out of American politics, and his 
place in the Senate was filled by another. Most of the other 
states also beat a precipitate retreat, poorly covered by a faint 
demonstration against unreasonableness in general. 

So the victors were beaten, and bad times made the defeat 
seem worse than it was. But they claim, and not without reason, 
to have done lasting good. The attitude of railroad corporations 
is very different from what it was twelve years ago. More of 
the old grievances have disappeared than is generally supposed. 
To this movement we owe the railroad commissions found in so 
many states. How much they are worth is, of course, a matter 
for dispute. The power of the railroads to reward or punish is 
so real and present, while that of the people at large is so indef- 
inite and far away, that it is not strange if the ordinary commis- 
sioner inspires about the same terror as does the gingerbread 
lion. Of late the Grange, forgetting its record, has been claim- 
ing the credit for all the good accomplished. It is gravely 



THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 657 

asserted that a resolution of the National Grange in 1874 caused 
the appointment of the Windom Committee on Transportation 
in 1872; in New York, Grangers boast of the Hepburn Com- 
mission of 1879, and claim to have defeated a railroad man, 
CM. Depew, for the Senate in 1881. And doubtless the Inter- 
state Commerce Bill will be hailed as one more achievement. 



THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 
By Charles W. Pierson 

(From the Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XXXII, No. 3, p. 368, January, 
1888. Reprinted by Permission of D. Appleton and Company) 

THE founders of the Grange thought they were establishing 
an Order whose aims were to be social and educational. 
But these were soon overshadowed by the co-operative, anti- 
middleman feature. This drew more into the Order than all 
other considerations combined, at one time almost threatening to 
transform our farming population into a race of traders, and this 
was likewise the chief cause of Grange decay. Fighting middle- 
men, unlike fighting railroads, was a legitimate kind of activity, as 
it had nothing to do with politics or theology — the two subjects 
tabooed by Granger law. Unfortunately, the story of Granger co- 
operation is recorded nowhere and thoroughly known to nobody. 
Those who know most preserve a discreet silence, mindful of 
questionable transactions and failures, now generally forgotten. 
No sooner had Kelley established a few Grangers in Minne- 
sota in 1869 than they set up a clamor for leasing flouring-mills 
and appointing agents in St. Paul and New York, in order to 
mill and ship their own grain. However farcical might be the 
position of the founders at Washington, they at least were con- 
servative enough to disavow this action. But upon Minnesota's 
threat to secede they yielded, and an agent was appointed in 
St. Paul. His first commission chanced to be to buy a jackass 
for a patron, whereupon one of the founders made comment : 
"This purchasing business commenced with buying asses; the 
prospects are that many will be sold." As soon as the National 
Grange fell into the hands of farmers, there was a movement to 
make it the head of a gigantic co-operative scheme. It was pro- 
posed to have three national purchasing-agents, stationed at New 

658 



THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 659 

York, Chicago, and New Orleans, to buy for the patrons of the 
whole country. But this was soon seen to be impracticable, 
owing to the diversity of interests in the Order. The same was 
true with regard to the purchase of patent-rights. With the view 
of absorbing into the Order the profits of manufacturing farming- 
implements, the National Grange had bought the right to man- 
ufacture a harvester, a mower and reaper, and various other 
machines. It had also tried to buy the copyright of Cushing's 
•' Manual " — a book in great demand among the Grangers. 
Meanwhile, the executive committee was busy in another direc- 
tion. Congressman Aiken of South Carolina, one of its members, 
says that they "visited the manufacturers who supplied the mar- 
ket with such implements as the farmers needed, from a scooter- 
plow to a parlor-organ, proposing to concentrate the purchases 
of the Order where the greatest discounts were obtained for 
cash. In no instance did they fail to secure a reduction of 25 
to 50 per cent." Mr. Aiken notes the astonishment of one 
cutlery-maker at a single order for ten thousand pruning-knives 
of a particular pattern. Such enormous reductions from regular 
prices were obtained only under a pledge of secrecy. But as in- 
formation had to be distributed by thousands of printed sheets, 
the patrons could not keep the secret. The contracts leaked out, 
causing the withdrawal of many firms from their agreements. 
What experiments the National Grange might have tried with 
the great sums in its treasury can only be conjectured, as its 
resources and influence over the subordinate lodges were crippled 
almost fatally in the Charleston meeting in 1875. It probably 
would have continued the crop reports, which, though costly, 
and often unreliable through the ignorance and carelessness of 
Granges about furnishing statistics, had proved valuable. Like 
the State Granges, which had full treasuries, it might have 
squandered its capital and come to grief on co-operative ventures. 
Such is the inference to be drawn from utterances like the 
following, from the executive committee : 

To secure rights to manufacture leading implements ... is pre-eminently a 
duty of the National Grange, and a measure of the greatest importance, di- 
rectly, because the profits of manufacture will thus be controlled by the Order, 



660 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

as well as the profits of transfer or dealing ; indirectly, by securing facilities 
that will favor the introduction of manufacturing establishments in districts 
at present far removed from them, and where their products are in demand. 

The plan of having the farmer's machinery manufactured at his 
door and under his supervision was much better as a statement 
of protectionist doctrine than as a guide to safe investment. The 
policy of the meeting of 1875 indicated that, before it was too 
late, the National Grange recognized that there was danger of 
going too fast, and that its province was rather to devise plans 
for the use of the Order than to plunge into enterprises itself. 
It therefore sounded a note of caution, and first issuing a scheme 
for co-operative joint-stock stores based on something found in 
this country, proceeded to work out a more elaborate system on 
the model of the Rochdale Pioneers. - Various English publica- 
tions on co-operation were distributed among the Order, and an 
envoy was sent to England to confer with English co-operators. 
The result was a new set of rules, closely following the Roch- 
dale plan, and insisting on the feature of investing the profits of 
trade for the stockholders on the basis of purchases, as opposed 
to the simple joint-stock arrangement of the earlier scheme, which 
had been largely put into practice. After a prolonged stay, the 
commissioner to England made his report, bringing from English 
co-operators proposals for dealings on a grand scale. The Grange 
was to subscribe $125,000 toward the necessary shipping depots, 
and all trade was to be carried on directly with England through 
a company to be known as the "Anglo-American Co-operative 
Company." The Englishmen followed the matter up by sending 
three men to the United States to confer with the executive 
committee. After looking over the ground, they proposed to 
erect their own warehouses at four seaboard cities, prepared to 
supply every article of clothing and every farm-implement needed 
by patrons at a discount of 10 per cent, and to receive in ex- 
change every variety of farm-produce at the market price, pro- 
vided that the Grange would concentrate its purchases upon 
them. But by this time the ardor of the patrons had been 
cooled by reverses in local experiments, and the executive com- 
mittee was unable to make the necessary guarantees. The 



THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 661 

National Grange's efforts now subsided into protests and warnings 
against the commission and joint-stock ventures so common in 
the Order, and pleas for the Rochdale system. Many enterprises 
were undertaken upon this basis, proving, if not highly profit- 
able, at least not disastrous. Some are still in existence, notably 
the lt Texas Co-operative Association." But, in general, the warn- 
ing came too late. The patrons had been too impatient to grasp 
the anticipated gains, and had burned their fingers. 

The step from co-operation in the National, to co-operation in 
the State and district Granges, is one from theory tinged by 
practice, to practice pure and simple. The craze for co-operation 
was like that for gold in 1848. The first and simplest step was 
to appoint a profusion of buying and selling agents, usually on 
salaries from the State Granges. But a few losses by mismanage- 
ment and rascality were enough to deter the farmers from trust- 
ing their produce to selling-agents. The system of agencies for 
buying only was not open to the same risks, but its utility differed 
in different states. For Iowa, where every farmer raised grain 
and wanted plows and reapers, an agent could buy to great ad- 
vantage. The patrons there gave figures to show that they saved 
$50,000 in one year on plows and cultivators alone. In the same 
year they bought fifteen hundred sewing-machines at a reduction 
of 45 per cent from retail prices. Local dealers were driven out 
of business. In New York, on the other hand, where the farmers 
are dairymen, grain-growers, nurserymen, and hop-growers, a state 
buying-agency was found useless, and was abandoned, after some 
hard experience, for a system of district agencies. These have 
effected saving in some instances, in others proved unprofitable, 
partly owing to the outcroppings of mean human nature among 
those most clamorous for the benefits. The " State Women's 
Dress Agency," in New York City, lasted longer, but, strangely 
enough, the patronesses preferred to buy their own dresses, and 
it finally expired. The states did not stop with agencies. They 
too began to buy patent-rights. There was an idea that all the 
principal machinery used by the Order should be manufactured 
within it. Flouring-mills, elevators, tobacco and grain warehouses, 
were established. Some ventures were unsuccessful from the start, 



662 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and at once clamored for subsidies. Others boasted of the great- 
est prosperity, one making a dividend of 50 per cent the first 
year. In 1874 two thirds of the elevators in Iowa were in Grange 
hands. The experiment of shipping provisions directly to South- 
ern Grange centers was undertaken. In 1876 the patrons were 
said to own 5 steamboat or packet lines, 32 grain-elevators, and 
22 warehouses. Some of these were local ventures, but the full 
treasuries of the State Granges furnished the capital for most of 
them. It is always easy to experiment with other men's money, 
and the State Grange officials found no difficulty in getting, with 
the Grange funds, into enterprises where disaster was inevitable. 
It came in every instance. The blow was so overwhelming in 
some states (Arkansas and Nebraska, for example) that they 
dropped at once from the order. District Granges disbanded for 
fear of being held individually liable for State Grange debts, and 
the very name Granger became a reproach. In other states the 
Grange was greatly weakened, but survived. In Iowa a few 
hundred of the faithful have struggled on for years, the officers 
receiving no salaries but devoting all receipts to the debt left as 
a reminder of past glories. Professor R. T. Ely, in his recent 
book on "The Labor Movement in America," expatiates on the 
•i grand results " achieved by the patrons in co-operation, and 
credits the absurd statement that Grange savings in this way 
amounted to $12,000,000 in one year! Unfortunately, the 
greater number of enterprises were " grand " chiefly in failure, 
a fact of which Professor Ely seems never to have heard. About 
all that survived the wreck of the later seventies were mutual- 
insurance companies, principally fire-insurance, and co-operative 
stores. At present, Grange insurance companies are reported 
from more than half the states and from Canada, and Grange 
co-operative stores are even more widespread. Successful buying- 
agencies still exist in five states, and the Delaware patrons have 
a fruit-exchange. The most interesting state of things is found 
in Texas, where there are about one hundred and twenty-five 
Grange stores established on the modification of the Rochdale 
rules, and banded together in a state association. This holds 



THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 663 

annual meetings, contributes $2000 'to keep Grange lecturers in 
the field, and reports steady prosperity. 

Much of the later history of the Grange has been anticipated in 
treating of railroad legislation and co-operation, but its decadence 
merits a little closer attention. Only those interested in agricultural 
pursuits were eligible for membership, but, in the unprecedented 
growth of the order under the labors of twelve hundred deputies, 
it was impossible to keep out men who were farmers only to the 
extent of a garden or back yard. In those days lawyers, doctors, 
merchants, discovered in themselves a marvelous interest in agri- 
cultural pursuits, and joined the Grange. As a Granger remarked, 
they were interested in agriculture as the hawk is interested in 
the sparrow. Two Granges were organized in New York City ; 
one, the "Manhattan," on Broadway, with a membership of 
forty-five wholesale dealers, sewing-machine manufacturers, etc., 
representing a capital of as many millions ; the other, the 
" Knickerbocker," one of whose first official acts was to present 
the National Grange with a handsome copy of the Scriptures — a 
gift causing some embarrassment. A similar one was organized 
in Boston, which made great trouble before it could be expelled ; 
and one was found in Jersey City, with a general of the army as 
its master, a stone-mason as secretary, and the owner of a grain- 
elevator as chaplain. But discordant elements were not all from 
other professions. Thousands of farmers had been carried in by 
the enthusiasm of the movement, with no idea of the nature 
and aims of the Order. Some expected to make a political party ; 
others, to smash the railroads ; almost all hoped to find in co- 
operation a panacea for poverty. There was great lack of disci- 
pline, but no discipline could have harmonized such a body. The 
first outbreak was in the direction of democracy. Lay members 
were eligible to but four of the seven degrees, and this was de- 
nounced as aristocratic, opposed to the spirit of democratic institu- 
tions. Along with this came the cry that the National Grange was 
growing too rich. In vain it made liberal donations of seeds and 
provisions to sufferers by grasshoppers and floods, and spent large 
sums in distributing crop-reports among the Order. The clamor 



664 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

continued till the faint-hearted in the Charleston session in 1875 
carried a measure to distribute $55,000 to the subordinate Granges 
— about $2.50 to each ! Prominent Grangers have maintained that 
the causes of Grange decay are to be found in this and the other 
measures of the same session curtailing the power of the National 
Grange. The true- cause has been seen to lie deeper, in the 
failure of business enterprises. These measures had some influ- 
ence, however. They were the beginnings of endless tinkering 
with the constitution, and the cause of quarrels innumerable. 
Among other quarrels was one with the Grange of Canada over 
the question of jurisdiction. Soon afterward came the first open 
break in the ranks. An Illinois Grange voted to disband, alleging 
pecuniary reasons and the autocratic rule of the National Grange. 
Many still had dreams that the Order was to spread over the 
world, but the co-operative leaven had begun to work, and there 
was soon no mistaking the tendency to decay. At the annual 
meeting in 1876, four thousand Granges were reported delin- 
quent. Salaries were at once reduced — the Master's from $2000 
to $1200, and the secretary's from $2500 to $2000. It was 
vainly attempted to stem the tide by issuing an official organ, the 
Grange Record. In 1879 the Master's salary was dropped en- 
tirely, and the .secretary's reduced to $600. A bill for services 
from Herr Prenzel, who had been working for the Order in 
Germany since 1875, was dismissed with little ceremony. The 
National Grange was not poor, having always kept about $50,000 
to its credit invested in government bonds, but it had given up 
the idea of converting the world. But the low-water mark had 
been reached. Cash receipts in 1880 increased 200 per cent 
over those in 1879. More Granges had been organized than in 
any year since 1874. The growth was especially marked in New 
England. The State Grange of Connecticut was revived after a 
dormancy of six years, and Maine began to claim more Grangers 
in proportion to population than any other state. At the session 
of the National Grange for 1885, held in Boston, delegates were 
present from all the states and territories but eight. It is not 
easy to explain this growth, as there seems to be no great prin- 
ciple underlying it. Some New England patrons are agitating 



THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 665 

free trade, but that can not be called a Grange issue, as Penn- 
sylvania patrons want protection extended to farm-products. The 
harmless practice of holding great fairs is gaining ground. At a 
recent one in Pennsylvania, lasting a week, the local paper says : 
" Over fifty thousand people were present on one day, and the 
sale of machinery direct to the farmers' ran up into the hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. Never were manufacturers and consumers 
brought into more direct and friendly relations." This is, perhaps, 
the latest development of Grange anti-middleman ideas. 

The most enthusiastic Grangers at present are the farmers' 
wives and daughters, who are attracted by the social opportunities. 
In fact, the Order seems to be going back to the educational and 
social basis of the founders, and its boasts are no longer co- 
operative ventures so much as Grange buildings and libraries and 
the Grange schools that exist in several states. In these direc- 
tions, and in what it has done to heal sectional differences between 
North and South, the Grange can boast its best achievements. 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 

By Frank L. McVey, Ph.D., Instructor in Economics in the 
University of Minnesota 

(From Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, August, 1896, "The Populist 
Movement," p. 135) 

I 

THE PLATFORM HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE'S PARTY 

THE last five years have been remarkable for the rapid rise 
of the political party now known as the People's Party. It 
has extended from one state into another until there is an organ- 
ization in every state, not to mention the territories. Although 
including a part of the discontented of the towns and cities, it 
can best be defined as a class movement chiefly confined, so far 
as membership is concerned, to men engaged in agriculture. The 
complaint of the party has been that prices of farm products are 
low, that the farmers' revenue is much less than formerly, and 
that monopolies are crushing the small producer and taxing the 
consumer. The first two are declared to be the result of financial, 
the last of industrial, legislation. 

The object of the party is to secure relief for the farming and 
laboring classes. The justification of this object is found in the 
decline in prices and the heavy burden of debts, made doubly so 
by the change in money standards. Legislation is looked upon 
as the means to secure an improved condition ; hence the forma- 
tion of- a political party. The government is thus the all-powerful 
lever by which better times are to be brought about. 

This third party, however, was not the growth of a day. Its 
formation was due to changes in modes of agriculture and manu- 
facturing introduced soon after the Civil War. Machinery had a 

666 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 667 

potent effect upon agriculture, and the products of the farm were 
rapidly increased. A decline in prices followed, which has con- 
tinued almost uninterruptedly ever since, resulting in the early 
formation of agricultural organizations in an effort to stay the 
decline. The Grange of 1867, the Farmers' Alliance of 1879, 
the Agricultural Wheel, 1878, and others were the forerunners 
of this organized movement. Efforts were made from time to 
time to join all societies of this kind into one great combination 
for political purposes. Although many members of the societies 
had been disturbed by the third-party idea, it was not until 
1890 that any great progress was made in the matter. In this 
year began a series of conventions which finally resulted in the 
formation of the party under consideration. 

There are five of these conventions whose proceedings interest 
the student of the People's Party. Two of them were not Popu- 
list assemblies but the meetings of organized societies showing 
symptoms of the third-party fever. They were held previous to 
the real beginning of the party, but belong nevertheless to the 
series of conventions which have given us so many new ideas as 
to the way in which we should be governed. The first one in 
which the idea of a third party appeared was held in St. Louis, 
December 6, 1889. It consisted of delegates from the farmer's 
organization and from the Knights of Labor. The object of the 
meeting was to effect a union between the two classes, which 
was accomplished under the name of the Farmers' Alliance and 
Industrial Union. Although this organization wisely deferred 
its entrance into politics as a party, it nevertheless passed some 
resolutions concerning the free coinage of silver, abolition of 
national banks, sub-treasuries, plenty of paper money, government 
ownership of railroads, non-ownership of land by foreigners, pro- 
hibition of futures in grain, and the reduction of the nation's 
income to expenses. Notice, then, that all these measures are 
economic, none of them even remotely verging upon politics. 
On December 7 of the following year (1890) another conven- 
tion was held at Ocala, Florida. The composition of this assem- 
bly was somewhat different from that of the preceding one. 
Members of the Southern Alliance, the Farmers' Mutual Benefit 



668 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Association, and the Colored Alliance were present. Here again 
the third-party idea remained unpronounced. The platform issued 
at Ocala differed in very few respects from that of 1889. The 
sub-treasury scheme was not endorsed as in the year before, 
and the government ownership of railroads and telegraphs was 
changed to government control. A reduction of heavy tariff 
duties was here demanded, and this is the only out-and-out 
demand of the kind made in the five platforms. The others 
content themselves with the statement that the revenue of state 
and nation should be limited to expenses. 

The Cincinnati gathering represented no real purpose at the 
time of its meeting. It was composed of the discontented and 
the ambitious, and was not representative of any large number of 
voters. The convention opened with the singing of "America" 
and the Lord's Prayer. These were given with an earnestness 
that spoke well for the convention and showed that they came 
from the honest, sturdy, farming class that has so often been the 
stay of the country, and whose tendency has been toward con- 
servatism rather than toward radicalism. The proportion of the 
delegates from the various states was very unequal. About two- 
thirds of the states were represented, but out of the 1500 per- 
sons present, 407 were from Kansas, 317 from Ohio, and 100 
from Illinois. The majority of the assembly were farmers, while 
the remainder consisted of representatives of the various labor 
societies. The purposes of the men were widely divergent and 
the movement to make a third party was by no means unanimous 
throughout the country. In vain some of the leaders protested 
against the formation of a party at that time, hoping to defer the 
matter until the following year. Their opposition was brushed 
aside and the party was launched with a platform. The plat- 
form is based on the Ocala platform, but contains some political 
measures, and a few Knights of Labor pledges, such as the eight- 
hour day. The planks of the platform are as follows : free coin- 
age of silver, abolition of national banks, loans on land and real 
estate, sub-treasuries, income tax, plenty of paper money, govern- 
ment control of railroads, election of president, vice-president, 
and senators by direct vote, non-ownership of land by foreigners, 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 669 

revenue of the state and nation limited to expenses, eight hours' 
work, and universal suffrage. Three of these measures are 
sops thrown to certain classes. The election of president, vice- 
president, and senators by popular vote is a bait for votes. So 
is the universal suffrage scheme. The eight-hour plank was 
adopted only after much objection on the part of the farmer, 
for he sometimes has to work sixteen hours and never less than 
twelve, so that he is not naturally in sympathy with the eight- 
hour movement. Policy sways him, however, and so this plank 
was added to the list. 

The St. Louis convention was held some ten months later, 
February 22, 1892. This was the preliminary convention for the 
selection of a national committee with the power to call a national 
convention to nominate candidates for president and vice-presi- 
dent. The convention was by no means harmonious, for there 
was a contest between the Southern Alliance and some of the 
Northern members for supremacy in the convention. It ended 
in victory for the northern faction. This convention again framed 
a platform, containing nearly the same planks as the year before. 
The planks referring to the abolition of national banks, universal 
suffrage, direct election of president, vice-president, and sena- 
tors, and government control of railroads and telegraphs, were 
omitted. In the place of government control, government owner- 
ship of railroads was substituted. A scheme for postal banks was 
also tacked on. 

The Populists now cut loose from their former platforms, and 
based all their speeches, demands, and speculations on the next 
platform, — that of Omaha. The Omaha convention was the 
first presidential-nominating convention held by the People's 
Party. The delegates assembled on July 4, 1892, closely watched 
by the press and people of the country. It was recognized as a 
turning point in the history of the new party, which would either 
put itself on record as favoring sensible measures or it would 
not. The platform of this convention bears the same stamp as 
did the others. Free coinage of silver, a minor clause on aboli- 
tion of national banks, a sub-treasury scheme or some similar sys- 
tem, a graduated income tax, plenty of paper money, government 



670 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

ownership of railroads, election of senators by direct vote of 
the people, non-ownership of land by foreigners, revenue of 
state and nation limited to expenses, eight hours' work, postal 
banks, pensions, and prohibition of the present contract law and 
immigration system, — these were the measures advocated. The 
various platforms have been on the whole very much alike. 
There has been, however, a gradual increase in the number of 
demands. The St. Louis platform of 1889 contains only eight 
planks; the Ocala, eight; Cincinnati, twelve; St. Louis, 1892, 
ten ; and the Omaha, thirteen. Free coinage, government control 
or ownership of railroads, the sub-treasury scheme, sufficient paper 
money, revenue of state limited to expenses, and non-ownership 
of land by foreigners are the demands put forth in every plat- 
form. During the last three years nothing has been said about 
the prohibition of futures. The trade in futures has been one 
of the chief elements of complaint among the farmers ; but the 
party has abandoned it as an issue. The real issue, according to 
the Populist, is financial. The party, by taking one side of the 
money question, hopes to force one of the old parties out of the 
field, and thus to place itself in a position of power as one of 
two parties, instead of being a mere third party. 



II 

THE OMAHA PLATFORM 

The Omaha platform is the last of the national Populist plat- 
forms. It contains the most advanced theories and demands of 
the new party. In fact, the older platforms are seldom men- 
tioned in the literature of the organization or by the speakers 
who present its cause. But the Omaha platform is called a 
second Declaration of Independence, — an idea properly sug- 
gested, not by any material which the platform contains, but 
by the day, July 4, on which the convention assembled. The 
preamble of the platform is the most curious part of the entire 
production. After invoking the blessing of Almighty God upon 
the convention, it goes on to say that " We meet in the midst 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 671 

of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material 
ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures, the 
Congress, and even touches the ermine on the bench. The 
people are demoralized. The newspapers are largely subsidized 
or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, our 
homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land 
concentrated in the hands of the capitalists. Urban workmen 
are denied the right of organizing ; imported pauperized labor 
reduces their wages, while a hireling army shoots them down. 
The toils of the millions are stolen to build up colossal fortunes. 
From the prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the 
two great classes, — tramps and millionaires." After this descrip- 
tion of the condition of the country, the preamble goes on to 
speak of the contraction of the currency and demonetization of 
silver. It calls attention to a "conspiracy against mankind," in 
which the currency is to be "abridged in order to fatten usurers, 
bankrupt enterprise, and enslave industry." Then follows an 
arraignment of the existing parties with their attempts to " drown 
the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham 
battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national 
banks, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver and the 
oppressions of the usurers may be lost sight of." After a state- 
ment of the belief that "the republic cannot live unless based 
upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the 
nation," and a pledge "to correct the evils which are destroying 
it, with wise and reasonable legislation," the preamble ends with 
the three following doctrines : 

1. "That the union of labor forces of the United States this day consum- 
mated shall be permanent and perpetual." 

2. That " Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken 
from industry is robbery." 

3. That the people should own the means of transportation ; and should 
such a thing come to pass, there should be a rigid civil-service regulation, so 
as to prevent the increase of the power of the national administration by the 
use of such additional government employees. 

Such is the remarkable address which precedes the platform 
of the new party. It depicts a condition of the country which 



672 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the inquiring mind is unable to substantiate. It arraigns the 
political parties as separate from the people and lays at their feet 
the responsibility for the condition of affairs. But the parties 
which have brought about these calamities are composed of the 
people, and their effort of self-government must, in consequence, 
have brought them to the state described in the preamble : a 
people who, if such a condition exists, are not capable of govern- 
ing themselves ; a people who must have been deficient in ability 
to grasp the first principles of economics ; a people who are 
unable to see and much less to follow their own interests. Never- 
theless these people are to be intrusted with greater responsibil- 
ities and greater opportunities to make or mar themselves, — not 
by the parties which have already brought them where they are, 
but by the one which poses as their savior. There is an appar- 
ent incongruity when one views the subject from this last stand- 
point, as well as a strong impression that the address has been 
injured by over-statement. 

The real platform which follows is much less ardent and, there- 
fore, demands more serious attention. It can be divided into 
minor and major planks. The minor planks treat of the tariff, 
pensions, contract labor laws, an eight-hour working day, and 
election of senators by the people. The major planks relate to 
currency, re-establishment of silver, government ownership of rail- 
roads, and the limited ownership of lands. This division, while 
somewhat arbitrary, has nevertheless a natural basis, in that the 
party considers the problems of money, land, and railroads as 
the most important. 

In the past the tariff has always occupied an important place 
in the platforms of political parties. The contests of the last ten 
or twelve years have been fought with this question as the main 
issue. Notwithstanding the strong hold which the tariff has upon 
political parties, the People's Party has deemed it best to pass by 
this bone of contention. The word " tariff " is not used in the 
Omaha platform, and there is very little to indicate the position 
of the party in regard to it. In the last lines ' of one of the 
sections is found the statement : ■* We demand that all state and 
national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 673 

the government, economically and honestly administered." We 
are told that this part of the section contains the party's views 
on the tariff. The refusal to make a definite statement is not 
altogether inconsistent with the party's opinion that the tariff 
subject is a back number, that it is either already decided or at 
least less important than the currency question. 

Both of the old parties maintain that the view thus ambigu- 
ously stated is in accord with their platforms. Curious editorials 
have appeared in the papers of the South and West upholding 
the claim that the new party's tariff views are not antagonistic 
to Democratic or to Republican principles. This has been the 
case when either of the old parties was trying to engineer a 
fusion with the Populists. The Democrats regarded the section 
as in perfect accord with the declaration, "tariff for revenue 
only," while the Republicans were no less vehement in their 
protestations that it was in harmony with their doctrine of 
" protection with incidental revenues." 

In reality the stand of the party on this point is nothing more 
than a " straddle." In the Populist ranks are two factions which 
must be satisfied, — the laborers, who suppose that high wages 
and protection are somehow connected, and the farmers, who re- 
ceive no protection and because of protection have to pay higher 
prices for what they buy. This apparent indecision of the party 
is due to the real antagonism of these two classes. Coupled with 
this antagonism was the necessity of drawing votes from the old 
parties. As both sides of the tariff question are already repre- 
sented by the two old parties, it was perfectly natural that the 
new one should attempt to avoid any declaration on this subject. 
What are the "necessary expenses" of a government? They 
cannot be easily determined. A progressive government needs a 
great deal of money for " necessary expenses " ; very heavy taxes 
(tariff or revenue) might be needed to meet its demands. 

The section on the abolition of national banks was necessitated 
by the general money plans of the party. The tendency has 
been toward the reduction of the circulation of national banks 
and a minimum use of their function of note-issue. The People's 
Party regards the national banks as responsible for the decline 



674 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

in circulation ; but it is really due to the fact that note-issue is 
no longer profitable. The party complains that the national 
banks do not perform the functions which they are bound by 
law to do, and demands their abolition. In suggesting such a 
change, the Populists must undertake to provide a currency suited 
to the needs of the country. This has not been done, except 
through the sub-treasury scheme, which is by no means accepted 
by the party as a whole. The plank was placed in the platform 
to satisfy the general prejudice against national banks, which are 
regarded as direct roads to wealth. 

The characterization of the present contract and immigration 
laws as inefficient, coupled with the demand for their abolition, 
was undoubtedly a concession to the labor societies, which were 
represented at the convention by delegates. Naturally the farmer 
is not opposed to immigration ; for he is an employer of labor, 
and the influx of immigrants into the more unsettled regions of 
the South and West enables him more easily to harvest his crops 
and enlarge his business. It is much the same as an increase of 
his capital, because it increases the number of laborers and thus 
lowers the price of labor. The farming element, too, objected 
to the plank favoring eight hours' work for the laboring man, 
when the farmer is compelled to toil from twelve to sixteen hours. 
But in order to win this element it was necessary to introduce 
the clause favoring the eight-hour day. The platform also favors 
pensions, — a patriotic thing, but smacking somewhat of political 
effect. Yet the party could hardly remain silent on the question. 

The election of senators by the people cannot be called a po- 
litical issue, but the People's Party, in voicing the sentiment that 
senators shall be elected by the people, has done a good thing. 

The reader can easily observe from the analysis of the planks 
given thus far that there is a contradiction in some of them, in 
others evident attempts to please two factions. In fact it must 
not be taken for granted that all the members of the party favored 
all the measures set forth in the platform. The planks as a whole 
were compromises. In the Ocala convention there were elements 
which favored free coinage, but were against the sub-treasury 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 675 

scheme ; another clique wanted a graduated income tax, but re- 
fused to vote for government ownership of telegraphs and rail- 
roads. In the Omaha platform, however, these were brought in 
and became the most prominent demands. The transition was 
not .accomplished without bitter contests. The radicals of the 
party pulled the conservatives into line and succeeded in putting 
their stamp on the platform. But as the party grows older it is 
likely to get to more solid ground ; for experience will teach the 
rank and file that success does not lie in radicalism. Meanwhile 
there are two factions in the party, between whom there may not 
at present be any broad line of distinction. This is due to the 
fact that one faction, representing the laborer, is greatly inferior 
in numbers to the other, the farmers. The movement originated 
among the agriculturists, and it is they who are carrying along 
the laborer while trying to advance their own cause at the same 
time. There is no real common bond between the two except 
that of discontent. On the question of Capital vs. Labor, there 
is, indeed, some common ground, since the farmer believes he 
is oppressed by the "gold-bug"; and here the two factions at 
present have a common interest. 

. Although the farmer does not want eight hours' labor, or re- 
stricted immigration, he does not object strenuously to either one. 
In fact they are, in a way, a matter of indifference to him ; he 
allows them to be included in the platform and as a matter of 
policy he considers it best to put them there ; but these are only 
minor details. Will he give way or compromise, however, when 
it comes to more important things ? Just here is where the party 
is liable to be wrecked, — through internal conflict. The feelings 
of the more advanced will be apt to clash with those of the more 
conservative. Moreover, the tendency to compromise in order 
to gain votes and favor from certain interests will undoubtedly 
pervert the party intentions and ideals. 



6y6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

III 
LAND, FARMS, AND MORTGAGES 

The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the 
people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien 
ownership of land should be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and 
other corporations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by 
aliens should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers 
only. — Omaha Platform 

At the close of the Revolutionary War the states of the old 
confederation found, among other things, a land question con- 
fronting them. The land extending from the Alleghanies to the 
Mississippi River was claimed by Virginia, North and South Caro- 
lina, and Georgia, as well as by New York, Pennsylvania, and 
Connecticut. By a series of magnanimous gifts, most of the states 
surrendered to Congress these conflicting claims. These gifts 
were the foundation of what is known as the public domain. 
To this early possession the United States has added through 
purchase, cession, and conquest, lands more extensive in area 
than all the countries of Europe excepting Russia. 

This public domain has always been regarded as belonging to 
the people, and it has been the policy of Congress to place them 
in possession of the lands as fully as possible. The doctrine that 
the prosperity of the people must* rest largely on the possession 
and cultivation of our extensive territory has been kept well in 
mind during the last seventy-five years, and the result has been 
that land has been distributed liberally, even though without 
much regard to the ultimate possessor. This was done primarily 
to maintain a continual progress in population and development 
of the country. 

The sum total of the various lands composing the public 
domain at different times was, in 1890, 2,894,235.91 square 
miles, or 1,852,310,987 acres. The actual domain which came 
into the possession of the United States was only 1,821,700,922 
acres ; for the area now composing the state Tennessee had been 
granted before the formation of the Union. This vast amount 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 677 

of territory was not acquired in a single year, but by skilful nego- 
tiations and careful treaties extending over a period of seventy- 
five years, the Gadsden Purchase of 1850 being the last. At an 
early date the government granted a considerable number of acres 
in the Ohio valley to the soldiers of the Revolution as a reward 
for their services, and allowed them afterwards to purchase land 
at a small price. Then came the idea that the sale of the public 
lands would relieve the people of an equal amount of taxes. So 
land was disposed of by public and private sale until 1848, when 
the policy of sales was changed-. The soldiers of the Mexican 
War were allowed one hundred and sixty acres each. Under the 
pre-emption system, first inaugurated in 1838, the lands were sold 
for cash to settlers who could occupy, improve, and cultivate them 
for a number of years ; but the Homestead Act provided for the 
gift of land to the actual settler. The Homestead Act was passed 
in 1862, although the agitation for it began some ten years earlier. 
By these two acts the early idea of sales for revenue was abandoned, 
and a plan for the disposition of homes substituted, which was 
more in line with the general policy of the government. 

Out of the original 1,821,700,922 acres of public lands, (399,- 
755,118 acres of this are said to be mountainous) there remained 
in 1890, vacant and unoccupied, 586,216,861 acres, or less than 
one-third of the original domain. Up to 1890 the United States 
had granted to corporations and states, for canals, railroads, river 
improvements, and wagon roads, 337,740,081 acres, leaving some 
430,948,710 acres to be accounted for by the Pre-emption and 
Homestead acts, military bounties, and lands held by railroads but 
not patented up to June 30, 1890. This makes a grand total of 
768,688,991 acres that have passed out of the possession of the 
United States during the last hundred years. Of the 586,216,867 
acres now in the hands of the government, only 1,700,000 are 
suitable for agriculture, the remainder consisting of grazing, coal, 
and mineral lands. 

The tendency at first was to regard the public lands as a means 
of revenue, and large quantities of land were sold to capitalists and 
speculators ; but the income received did not come up to expec- 
tations, and the continual clamor of the people that the Public 



678 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Domain belonged to the public, compelled the government to 
change its policy. Under the Pre-emption Law the actual settler was 
given the preference and protection of the government. Many 
settlements were made under the law, although the vastness of 
the territory and the inability to locate all the claims enabled 
sharpers to manipulate the law to their advantage. On the other 
hand, it enabled settlers to secure 640 acres of land — as much 
as any man needed — at a low price. The Homestead Law was 
a further increase of the generosity of the government : under it 
the West was rapidly settled. Like the Pre-emption Act, it was 
greatly abused, and the loose taxation laws made it possible to 
hold property without any expense. As land was pre-empted and 
small towns sprang into existence, there came also the necessity 
for railroads. March 2, 1833, Congress authorized the state of 
Illinois to divert the canal grant of six years before, and to con- 
struct a railroad with the proceeds of said lands. This was the 
first Congressional enactment providing for a land grant in aid 
of a railroad, but it was not utilized by the state. Other grants 
followed, until some 171,014,978 acres had been given by the 
United States and by the various states for railroad purposes. All 
this land was given on the condition that within a specified num- 
ber of years railroads should be built between certain designated 
points. A portion of this land has been forfeited by non-perform- 
ance of contract ; but in most cases where the railroad declared 
itself unable to carry out its agreement, Congress good-naturedly 
extended the time. The greatest abuse of the grants, however, 
was the issuing of certificates before the road was built. In this 
way the company was able to hold its grant, and at the same time, 
since in appearance at least the government owned the land, the 
company escaped taxation. The burden which they thus avoided 
naturally fell upon those who owned land in their own names. 
Meanwhile the railroad lands, though not cultivated, were increas- 
ing in value by reason of the growing population around them. 
They were sold to capitalists and others, who, purchasing thousands 
of acres at a time, in turn speculated upon them. Thus the final 
purchaser secured the land which he wished to cultivate at a price 
much higher than would have been asked by the government. 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 679 

There was in the West at this time a political and business 
element which favored land speculation. It dominated the legisla- 
tures of the states, and its influence was felt more or less strongly 
even in Congress. Even under the Homestead and Pre-emption 
laws, land easily passed into the hands of speculators. The only 
check was state taxation ; for the owners of land could not allow 
it to remain idle if taxes were levied, and in cases where the 
amount of land was too large to be cultivated, the owners would 
have been compelled to sell it. But the small owners were just 
as eager as the great corporations to avoid taxation. So laws 
were passed forbidding the grant of patents until the surveyor's 
fee was paid ; and until a patent was obtained the land was not 
taxable, although it could be occupied by the intended patentee. 
What is now charged against the great corporations is really the 
result of improper legislation, and could have been avoided by a 
little legislative skill. It is true that taxes on the full value of 
farm lands would have rested heavily on the settler, but a proper 
reduction for debt would have made the whole system more sat- 
isfactory in the end. The railroads, on the other hand, mistook 
their own interests when they allowed land to remain unoccupied. 
Eventually settlements, farms, and towns along their routes would 
have repaid them in the increased business. As a matter of course, 
there has been no little chicanery about the land affairs of the 
nation ; but the Land Office of the government has struggled hard 
to do justice and to protect settlers. Whatever of injustice exists 
will generally be found due to the failure of the citizen to attend 
to his part of the matter or in the failure of Congress to stop 
abuses by appropriate legislation. 

None the less all these things aroused the opposition of the 
people when they began to see that they had made a mistake in 
their legislation and that speculators and land-grabbers had taken 
advantage of it. This opposition began in 1870, after the huge 
land grants to the various Pacific roads. It made -• public opinion 
halt to give away to corporations a territory half as big as 
Europe." The people watched with indignation the course of the 
land companies into whose hands the greater part of the grants 
fell. The citizen of the United States, it was felt, was being cut 



680 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

off from his natural heritage. The doubt concerning early legis- 
lation was changed into the conviction that it was a mistake. It 
was during this time and a little later that foreign syndicates 
and noblemen purchased great tracts of land from the railroads. 
These lands were divided into great farms, used as cattle ranches, 
or sold in small sections to farmers. The foreign owners were 
always represented by managers, with whom alone the people 
came in contact. Misunderstandings often arose, and as a conse- 
quence, hatred for the foreigners. It was unpatriotic for for- 
eigners to own land in this country ; and this sentiment, coupled 
with the fear that a landed aristocracy would arise, added fuel 
to the opposition to great land holdings and the consequently 
unoccupied and undeveloped territory. This hatred of foreign 
landowners, however, has no real basis. It is a relic of medi- 
aeval civilization. Many serious and earnest men doubtless be- 
lieve that it will virtually end in the nation's being transferred 
to the foreigner. But in reality the alien investor puts himself 
at our mercy. Compared with the resident owner, he is at a 
decided disadvantage in his business relations. Again, if he buys 
land or invests in some other form of property, he increases the 
value of the property around it. Considered from this point of 
view, the alien ownership in lands is not such a terrible thing, 
and hardly calls for the resolution of a political party against it. 
For the last fifty years there has been more or less agitation 
in regard to the public lands. In 1852 the Free Soil Party in- 
corporated in its platform the declaration that "the public lands 
of the United States belong to the people, and should not be 
sold to individuals nor granted to corporations, but should be 
held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should 
be granted in limited quantities, free of cost to landless settlers." 
In 1892 the People's Party said at Omaha : " The land, includ- 
ing all natural resources of wealth, is the heritage of the people 
and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and all 
alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All lands now 
held by the railroads and other corporations in excess of their 
actual needs, and lands now owned by aliens, should be reclaimed 
by the government and held for actual settlers only." This later 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 68 1 

development of Free Soilism is much more radical than 'its 
predecessor of 1852, which was not a bad thing in its way, 
as it was partly the cause* of the Homestead Law. 

This land movement is demanded not only for the oppressed 
of the cities, who are to have the alternative of leaving the cities 
and taking to the land, but also for the mortgage-laden farmers 
of the West, who, as it would appear, are crushed under financial 
burdens too great to be borne, under the present circumstances. 

Governor St. John during the campaign of 1894 made the 
statement that the farmers of the country have been laboring 
under a mortgaged indebtedness of from seven to eight billions 
of dollars. No one could deny the statement and at the same 
time support his denial with proof ; and it went unchallenged. 
It was a short step from this to the declaration that the entire 
West was staggering under the mortgages held by the moneyed 
East, and that the farmers were the victims of a conspiracy to 
wreck their homes and seize their farms under the guise of 
law. These claims then entered into local politics, and their 
influence extended until several states were ruled by the party 
which had taken up the cry. Senators and representatives were 
elected, through whom the matter of investigation was pressed 
upon Congress. While the party grew rapidly, at the same time 
the people of those states said to be most heavily embarrassed 
found it more and more difficult to borrow money from the East. 
This was brought about by the reaction from the statements made 
for political effect. Capital refused to believe the conditions to 
be any other than those thus pictured, and withdrew investments 
as much as possible. In this way an economic question was 
dragged into politics, and there it remained, while its importance 
has been exaggerated by the need for political thunder. There 
is no doubt that the mortgage occupies an important place in the 
problems of the hour, but it is far from being a political question, 
nor can it be settled by the interference of any party. 

A mortgage is not necessarily a disgrace or a sign of financial 
disturbance. On the contrary it may be a means of prosperity. It 
is only an evidence of a lack of capital on the part of one person, 
which has been supplied by another. The loan has been made 



682 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and security given for its payment. Men and women go West for 
the purpose of bettering their condition. If they had money or 
were contented with their lot, such would not be the case. Hav- 
ing secured land either directly from the government or as cheaply 
as possible from some other owner, they proceed to cultivate it at 
once. Their little stock of money is soon exhausted, and in order 
to make other improvements money must be borrowed, and the 
land is mortgaged. This case is repeated over and over again, 
until there are millions of dollars lent to the owners of Western 
farms. The money, however, is used for improvements. Churches, 
houses, towns, roads, drains, are constructed. Business enterprises 
have been set on foot, and the new country has advanced rapidly. 
The mortgage money has not been squandered ; the development 
of the West is a proof of the statement. It has been a great 
advantage to the settlers and to the capitalists, and only through 
such means could this development have been possible. 

The serious effect of a general mortgage indebtedness lies in 
the tremendous force it brings to bear in times of financial de- 
pression and the constant drain on production. It is in time of 
depression that the payment of interest is often defaulted. Pay- 
ment at any time indicates that enough wealth has been produced 
by the cultivation of the land and other sources to pay the debt. 
But foreclosure means that the margin of value in the land has 
been swallowed up. Foreclosures, however, have been few in 
comparison with the number of mortgages, and this fact made 
Western mortgages a favorite investment with Eastern capitalists 
until a few years ago. Consequently more money was lent than 
could be profitably used and in many cases the farmer thus found 
himself in a hard place, barely able to meet the interest payments 
or compelled to foreclose. Foreclosure is a sure method of lower- 
ing prices, for it means the disposal of property at much less 
than its value. It is then placed on the market at a much lower 
price than was asked before the foreclosure, and as a matter of 
fact decreases the value of all property in its neighborhood. In 
some cases heavy interest has been charged and people have been 
imposed upon by fraudulent agents. From these cases an outcry 
has arisen against Eastern capitalists, who, it was said, had lent 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 683 

their money at exorbitant rates of interest, taken mortgages, and 
were drawing from the state and impoverishing it. All these 
things have increased the cry that the entire West is mortgaged, 
and the inability to make ends meet is explained on the ground 
that the mortgage eats up the larger part of the product. 

The late United States census does not corroborate this view 
of the question. In response to the demands of the West, the 
Census Bureau has made a careful investigation of the subject. 
Even if the figures have no positive value, their comparative value 
cannot be gainsaid. The entire mortgage indebtedness on June 1, 
1890, was $6,019,679,985, representing 4,777,698 mortgages. 
The mortgages on acres amounted to $2,209,148,431 ; and on lots, 
$3,810,531,554. The number of acres covered was 273,352,109. 
Of this mortgage indebtedness, New York had $1,607,874,301 
or 26.71 per cent of the total mortgage debts of the country. 

Nevada's debt was $2,194,995, which was less than that of 
any county in New York. During the ten years of the census 
the increase in acres covered by mortgages was 65.36 per cent; 
in lots, 198.25 per cent. The mortgage indebtedness on agricul- 
tural land increased 70.98 per cent as compared with 216.80 
per cent on lots. 

The increase of values in the states of California, Florida, 
Washington, Nebraska, and Kansas has been sufficient to pay 
the interest at the average rate on the mortgaged farm for the 
ten years, and in the end to pay the principal. There are four- 
teen states in which the rise in value has more than paid the 
interest. 

Twenty states, however, experienced an increase in value not 
sufficient to meet the interest charges, while ten others suffered 
a loss in the average value of farms per acre. In these states 
the loss in value and the interest charges have pressed hard upon 
the people. But six of these states belong to the North Atlantic, 
the other four to the Western division. On the whole the investi- 
gation has shown the mortgage indebtedness to be much less than 
was supposed and to be under more favorable conditions. That 
much-reviled state, Kansas, is grouped among those which have 
been able to meet interest charges and pay at least part of the 



684 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

principal by the increase in valuation. The result of the investi- 
gation should be such as to restore confidence in those states 
where the conditions have presumably been so bad. In fact one 
would be led to conclude that the mortgages on the whole had 
exerted a beneficial influence. 

IV ' 
FINANCIAL VIEWS 
' Finance 

We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the 
general government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, 
and that without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable, and efficient 
means of distribution direct to the people at a tax not to exceed 2 per cent 
per annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' 
Alliance, or a better system ; also by payments in discharge of its obligations 
for public improvements. 

We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present 
legal ratio of 16 to 1. 

We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased 
to not less than $50 per capita. 

We demand a graduated income tax. 

We believe that the money of the country should be kept, as much as 
possible, in the hands of the people, and hence we demand that all state and 
national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, 
economically and honestly administered. — Omaha Platform 

The most important planks of the Omaha platform are those 
which relate to money. This importance is shown by the care 
and thought with which they are set forth, by the fact that the 
late campaigns have been fought with this currency issue as the 
prominent one, and because the main support of the party comes 
from states which are interested in silver ; although it has been 
found that this support was not due entirely to the silver tendency 
of the party, but partly at least to other planks which are more 
socialistic in character. In addition to this is the attitude of the 
leaders of the party toward the money question in comparison with 
the remainder of the platform. They believe in a financial cam- 
paign, leaving the rest of the platform to be taken up at some 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 685 

future time. These facts, coupled with the position of money in 
the economy of all governments and its effect upon the people, 
cause us to turn with great interest to this part of the subject. 

Looked at from the standpoint of purpose, the financial views 
of this party can be divided thus : 

{a) Incidental schemes. 

1. Postal banks. 

2. Income tax. 

3. Government income. 

4. Relation to industries. 

(3) The expansion of the currency. 

1. Free coinage of silver. 

2. Increase of currency to at least $50 per capita. 
(c) Modes of distribution. 

1. Not by banks. 

2. Sub-treasury. 

3. Or a better system. 

The first section {a) concerns us little, since the objects con- 
tained in it are not essentially Populistic, neither are they neces- 
sary to any particular system of currency. The income tax was 
passed by a Democratic Congress ; and the matter of postal banks 
does not concern us very much. In reality these are minor details 
which do not change the position of the party. But the second 
(b) and third (c) are of the utmost importance. 

The claims and demands of the party are to be found in the 
platform and in the bills which have been presented by its repre- 
sentatives in Congress. The platform demands free coinage of 
silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, and the increase of the currency 
to at least $50 per capita. These two planks can be regarded as 
requests for an inflation or perhaps, in juster terms, an expansion 
of the circulation. The bills introduced in the Senate by Sena- 
tor Peffer are similar to those offered by his colleagues, and are 
to be interpreted as evidence of the intention of the party, should 
it gain power enough to bring about such legislation. These bills, 
twelve in number, would increase the monetary circulation of the 
United States to an amount ten and a half times as great as that 
of the currency now in use by all the nations of the world. They 



686 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

call for a circulation of $95,150,000,000. The platform is con- 
servative beside them, but the two must be taken in connection 
with each other, — the platform as the cause, the bills as the effect. 
The planks which refer to the mode of distribution of the cur- 
rency have been passed over by the party, more stress being laid 
on the free coinage of silver and the increase of the circulation. 
In fact the entire energy of the party seems to be bent toward 
financial reform. 

When the new party determined upon the abolition of the 
national banks it was necessary to offer some substitute by which 
the currency of the country might be circulated. The wording of 
the platform in regard to this point reads as follows : 

We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the general 
government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that 
without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable, and efficient means 
of distribution direct to the people at a tax not to exceed 2 per cent per annum, 
to be provided for as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, 
or a better system; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public 
improvements. 

Under the plan of the Farmers' Alliance, the issuing of money 
comes under one or two alternatives, — "either the government 
must permit the individual citizen to issue scrip based in some 
manner upon his own labor products, or the government must 
itself supply him with money notes at cost, as it now furnishes 
them to banks." The first is acknowledged to be a worse than 
useless form of money, for it would not circulate beyond the 
immediate neighborhood of the issuer and would not meet the 
exactions upon it. The only way left, then, is for the govern- 
ment to furnish currency directly to the people, the cost of 
printing, issuing, and other expenses to be borne by the one 
first receiving the money. In return he must give ample security 
and must promise to pay the loan in a reasonable time. The 
government burns the scrip when it is returned. The security 
acceptable to the government is to be, if it is so desired, non- 
perishable farm products, real estate, and manufactures. The 
borrower is to receive in notes 80 per cent of the value of the 
product deposited. These he may use as he wishes. When 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 687 

# 
the value of the security decreases, the borrower must increase 
his security or give up the loan. In this way the government 
is to be made secure and can indorse the notes with safety. Such 
is the sub-treasury plan. It will naturally necessitate a greater 
number of warehouses, clerks, and complicated accounts than 
was at first assumed. The whole plan is based upon the hypoth- 
esis that farm products are a safe basis for loans, and upon the 
old ideas of a cheap currency, the need of the people for money, 
and the inelasticity of the prevailing system. 

The sub-treasury plan is neither more nor less than the appli- 
cation of the national-bank system to the individual. That is, the 
individual is to be allowed the privilege of the banks to make a 
deposit and to receive in return a certain amount of money based 
on the value of the security. In principle the sub-treasury plan 
is much like the so-called " Land Bank " in Massachusetts in 
1 7 14. There is, however, considerable difference as regards the 
details. The sub-treasury scheme is broader in its allowance of 
securities and the borrower pays a much lower interest. The 
" Land Bank ; ' was periodical : the issues were made for a period 
of years ; while the later plan proposes continuous issues at all 
times and in any amount. In this way the money system is 
not disturbed and the fluctuation caused by the redemption of 
all notes at one time is, at least to some degree, avoided. The 
mistakes of the Massachusetts t( Land Bank " are to be avoided 
by this continuous currency at a low rate of interest, but the 
basis of the plan is not a stable one. At times real estate fluc- 
tuates greatly ; the same is true of corn and the various products 
of the farm. This is met by the provisions for additional se- 
curity or the redemption of the loan. The whole theory is fairly 
plausible, but the cumbrous machinery required to make it prac- 
ticable would in time destroy its usefulness. Then again, the 
plan extends only to farm products and to real estate as securities. 
The natural consequence would be a boom in these two things, 
since those desiring loans would have to possess one or the other 
to give as securities ; and at the present time it would be almost 
as difficult to obtain them as to get money. The government 
would be compelled to have warehouses in which to store its 



688 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

farm securities, and an army of expert clerks to keep accounts 
of the various transactions. But more objectionable than all this 
would be the ease with which this currency could be controlled 
by the capitalist. Farm products would be bought up by the 
capitalist, dumped in the warehouses, and a loan of astonishing 
size would then be secured. Moreover, there would be every 
incentive for the capitalist to do this, since he would be able to 
get money at 2 per cent instead of at 4 per cent or 5 per cent 
as he now does. Any plan now advanced by the People's Party will 
probably be one which involves the same principle, that is, of 
cheap money, unlimited in amount, and issued on land and other 
securities. But paper currency cannot be issued against land, for 
land has no adaptability as money. Nor can mortgages on real 
estate, government, state or railroad bonds, perform the same serv- 
ice. Paper currency is but a "promise to pay on demand," and 
the thing in which it is payable must have the qualifications of 
money. Consequently if the borrower fails to meet his note, the 
government takes the security which the note holder does not 
want. He demands gold or silver ; but this the government 
does not possess for the purpose. Thus gold and silver coinage 
manifestly fails to fulfill its proper function in a money system. 
The demand for more money per capita has usually come 
from the South and West, where the conditions were such as to 
cause a scarcity of money. A new country always needs capital. 
It is the comparatively poor who emigrate, and they require 
everything, from ploughs and machinery to household furniture. 
The consequence is that the capital which goes into money is 
begrudged more than anything else. They do not want to hold 
anything in the form of money, but spend it for tools and neces- 
sities brought from the older parts of the country ; thus the cash 
goes out of that section, and when they are ready to sell their 
products, they find that they must wait for the money to return. 
Meanwhile prices are apt to decrease, and thus the whole system 
works to their disadvantage. Realizing that such is the case, 
a cheap money is demanded, sufficient in amount for all practical 
purposes. Any plan tending to secure such a result is at once 
joyfully accepted by a large number of people. Most urgent in 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 689 

their, demands are those who have nothing to lose and everything 
to gain. In 1728, persons of large obligations and decayed for- 
tunes found that the greater the depreciation of the currency the 
more easily debts were discharged. Men of this class, having a 
personal and selfish object in view, were more persevering than 
those who opposed them on public grounds. The people of 1 896 
have made the same discovery. Money is in all these cases con- 
founded with capital : an ample and cheap currency will mean 
capital easily secured, — this is their hope. Depreciation sets in, 
.however, because the money has no substantial base and is too 
freely issued. There is a flow of wealth from the creditor to 
the debtor. The latter pays his bills in a constantly decreasing 
money value, and thus property passes from the industrious to 
the speculator and gambler. The larger the debt the greater the 
gain. Under these circumstances the more a man owes for value 
received, the better off he is. The capitalist suspends active 
operations, stops the plants in which he is interested, while those 
who live on salaries and annuities find themselves in a distressed 
condition. Then comes the reduction of redundant currency. 
Property shrinks in proportion to the old prices ; goods bought 
must be sold at a sacrifice. Prices go down ; confidence is de- 
stroyed, and a financial crisis crowns the inflation. Such has 
been the experience of the past ; such will be that of the future, 
if we resort to such expedient as the sub-treasury plan, or to a 
currency like the one proposed by the new party. 



GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROADS 

Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the gov- 
ernment should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people. 

The telegraph and telephone like the postoffice system, being a necessity 
for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the govern- 
ment in the interest of the people. — Omaha Platform 

The rapid growth of the railroad immediately after the war, 
and the Granger agitation and legislation of the seventies, brought 



690 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

railroad matters and the question of their ownership by the 
government before the people with much force. Since then this 
question has grown in importance ; the working-men have taken 
it up and a party has made it the subject of one of its platform 
planks. There is a quietness about all this movement (agitation 
if you wish to call it such) which is apt to give the casual observer 
the impression that it is not deeply rooted. But the indications 
are that should the matter come to a vote, the question would 
be decided in favor of government ownership of the railroads. 
Popular opinion regardless of party is liable to break out at any. 
time and secure the measure desired. The reason that it has not 
yet reached this stage probably lies in the multiplicity of problems 
before the public, which need solution far more than does the 
railroad question. In this agitation the People's Party as a whole 
occupies an extreme position. It not only hopes for the cessa- 
tion of abuses, but for material aid in the way of low rates and 
reduction of taxes, brought about by the government's use of 
railroad earnings. 

To a very great extent this party has taken advantage of the 
demand for government ownership of the railroads, in order to 
secure support where perhaps it might otherwise fail to find it. 
In the West there has always existed more or less hatred of 
the railroad, and any movement to change the ownership would 
be sure to secure much support. 

The popular feeling in favor of government ownership is largely 
due to the newspapers and periodicals. Despite their unreliability 
they are believed, and must be considered in connection with the 
causes of the Populist movement. Probably the earliest demand 
for government ownership was on the ground of extortion. The 
idea soon prevailed that a railroad was an instrument by which 
certain Eastern capitalists were to be enriched by the plunder of 
those unfortunate enough to be obliged to use their road. This 
view has been deeply rooted in the minds of the early settlers, 
who were perhaps justified in its assumption. The feeling of 
injury has been increased by the tales of watered stocks and land 
deals, — containing a great deal of truth, but much magnified 
for political purposes. 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 691 

As a complement to the sweeping charges of extortion, comes 
the dream of low rates and large savings when the government 
shall own the railroads. A great many writers on railroad topics 
insist that the economy of the government management over that 
of private management would be very great. The annual saving by 
such operation is estimated from $110,000,000 to $160,000,000. 
One writer more enthusiastic than the others, in a pamphlet for 
sale by the national committee of the People's Party, believes 
that government ownership will result in low passenger rates 
and free freight rates. "This possibility," he says, "is due to 
the fact that the amounts which have been taken from the people 
will be honestly used." Such a view is rather an extreme one; 
but there is no doubt that the advocates of government ownership 
hope for a liberal revenue from the railroads after they have come 
into the control of the government. This revenue is to pay for 
the roads, and reduce taxes in an astounding way. 

The real point in all agitation of this sort is not as to whether 
it is a good thing for the country, but whether it will secure a 
majority for the party. If the latter will not result, we may look 
for the disappearance of this plank from the platform. Although 
government ownership appears in the platform of the People's 
Party as essential to its creed, nevertheless it is not accepted by 
all the members of the party. While there is a large majority 
who firmly believe in the ownership of the railroads by the gov- 
ernment, the more conservative and abler men of the party, on 
the other hand, are much in doubt as to the practical outcome 
of the experiment. Senator Allen, of Nebraska, one of its strong- 
est men, in an interview published in the Review of Reviews, 
expressed the belief that the best way to bring the matter 
before the public would be to take one of the Pacific roads and 
try the experiment. He added, however, that he was in doubt 
as to the success of such an undertaking. 

Firm as the opinion seems to be on this point, there is and has 
been a faction which has insisted all along that there was another 
matter far more important than the railroad question to be dealt 
with, — the currency question. The party started out with a variety 
of economic questions, on about the same basis, but one by one 



692 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



n 



they fell to their natural places until this one stands out more 
prominently than the rest. Replying to its contemporaries con- 
cerning the action of the Populist national committee in allowing 
silver to forge ahead of government railroads and related questions, 
one of the Populist papers says in an editorial : 

Those who fear a one-plank platform would do well to look over the present 
and immediate past. They would learn that the contest for the past two years 
has been waged on the single plank of financial reform. . . . Whether wanted 
or not, whether urged by special resolution or not, whether deprecated or not, 
the single plank of financial reform, with free coinage of silver as its leading 
feature, will be the overshadowing and dominant factor in the People's Party- 
contention until that proposition is satisfactorily settled. We believe in ac- 
cepting the situation and shall continue to do battle for financial reform in 
preference to all other demands of the party. 

From this and other utterances, one is led to believe that the 
question of railroads is not at present so important to the People's 
Party as the platform * would lead one to believe. The currency 
contest is likely to be long and bitter, and perhaps in the end 
satisfactory to no one. The Populists have been forced to pay 
more attention to one issue than another by the conditions pre- 
vailing at Washington and throughout the country ; and they 
have been by no means slow to use their balance of power to 
force attention to their silver views. Silver being an issue" unlike 
the other features of the platform, they have concentrated their 
forces on the one plank of financial reform and allowed the 
others to remain in the background. 

VI 

IS THE PEOPLE'S PARTY SOCIALISTIC? 

From reading the accounts of the various Populist conventions, 
and the speeches of prominent men in the new party, it has been 
very difficult to determine whether or not the party is socialistic. 
The action of the conventions indicated one thing, the speeches 
another. It is true that the Omaha platform was in existence ; 
and yet the continued references to other issues than those raised 
in that political manifesto gave the impression that the planks 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 693 

were not so universally accepted as had been supposed, and that 
the whole party was drifting away from them. Such was the 
belief entertained by the general public ; while behind the scenes 
a battle was being carried on between the silver and socialist 
elements in the party itself, — a one-plank platform versus the 
Omaha platform. The radicals wished to sustain the latter, while 
the conservatives desired the party to drop all issues except that 
of silver and fight only for financial reform. These two elements 
were at sword's points over the apparent insignificance of silver in 
the Omaha platform. The radicals were conservative silver men, 
while the conservatives were radical silverites. The silver men 
had entered the party more for the purpose of booming silver 
than to mitigate the wrongs of the oppressed. The Congress 
of the United States had passed the Sherman Act and later 
had repealed it, so that the silver men could hardly expect any 
support from the old parties. They saw a way out through the 
new party ; but they had not taken into account the real causes 
of that party's existence, and consequently failed to secure any 
great advantage for silver. Meantime both Republicans and 
Democrats have turned like needles to a loadstone in the direc- 
tion of silver, and the silver men have hurried from the different 
parties, including the People's, to the neutral grounds where the 
advocates of this coinage seem universally to be gathering. 

This contest has been waged from the very beginning of the 
party. It began in debates and ended in a party rupture ; for 
the long-expected crisis has now 7 occurred and the true Populistic 
element has broken away from the silverites, and stands firmly 
on the Omaha platform. 

The leaders of the party favored the silver side of the fight, 
but the rank and file of Populism was not to be beguiled by 
any such sentiment. The silver men attempted to undermine 
the platform, but without success. Every time the question was 
brought up a contest ensued, in which the silver men were driven 
to the wall. In the conference of the Populist leaders at St. Louis 
in December, 1894, a desperate attempt was made to change 
the Omaha platform, but the great majority of delegates at the 
conference voted to re-affirm it. Since that time the one-plank 



694 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

silverites have tried to get control of the conventions in Chi- 
cago and Cleveland, held for the purpose . of nominating city 
officers. Chicago and Cleveland are strongly Populistic, hence 
the battles in these two cities were significant of the strength of 
the two factions in the general party. In Cleveland there was 
no evidence of any silver element, while in Chicago the silver 
champions were forced to remain silent. The same experience 
has been repeated in the state conventions, and even in the silver 
states the leaders of this movement were not able to control the 
Populist Party. The presence of the silver faction has obscured 
the real purpose of the party to such an extent as to render the 
question at the head of this chapter a pertinent one. But the 
defection of this element leaves the originators of the party with- 
out the screen of free coinage. The two tendencies have been 
pointed out, and the student of this party movement can discern 
the motives without the perplexing presence of cross-purposes. 

The government has very materially aided the development of 
the West. Large sums of monkey were there spent, and large 
tracts of land were given away to encourage immigration. The 
Pacific railroads received both money and land from the govern- 
ment, and states were given thousands of acres for educational 
purposes. The national government has also built roads and 
aided in the construction of canals. In addition to all this the 
Homestead and Pre-emption laws opened large tracts of land 
which were to be had in small lots for the asking. The legisla- 
tures of the various Western states have been very ready to help 
this or that undertaking, in order to advance the states. All this 
led to an exaggerated conception of the power of government to 
accomplish large results in bringing about prosperity. The gov- 
ernment's policy has made some men rich, and has also accus- 
tomed the people to look toward Washington whenever they 
were hard pressed or wanted legislation to assist some contem- 
plated enterprise. This reliance upon Washington has passed 
through various stages, until now it manifests itself in the de- 
mand that the government shall own and control the railroads. 
It is not to be understood that the idea of paternalism in gov- 
ernment has of itself developed to the point of socialism ; but 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 695 

the principles of government extension, public ownership and 
management, have fallen upon ground well prepared for them. 
The consequence has been a rapid growth of these principles 
and a general belief in them. 

As a result the people of the West are divided into three 
classes, separated only by their distance from the first, which 
forms the nucleus of the People's Party. In reality this first 
class is composed of socialists ; the majority would probably ad- 
mit that they were such. In the second class are to be found 
many farmers, laborers, business and professional men, who are 
not Populists, but who favor government ownership of railroads 
and telegraphs and an extension of government activity. This 
class fear the word ''socialist" and in their hearts regard the 
socialist as a species of bomb-thrower who is at war with society. 
Hence they cannot see the similarity between their own belief 
and that of the socialist. The third class consists of men who 
repudiate socialism even more plainly than the second, but who 
are nevertheless declared paternalists. 

Such, in the main, is the situation in the West. As a matter 
of course there are many exceptions, but the large majority of 
the people belong to one or the other of the classes mentioned. 
Under such conditions the Populists have naturally received 
much sympathy, and the very fact that they have had sympa- 
thizers has encouraged them to express their views much more 
forcibly than they would otherwise have done. This fact has 
also given them sufficient force to hold out against the strategies 
of the silver men, and by the exhibition of their power to add 
strength to strength. 

Strong as has been the spirit of paternalism in shaping the 
beliefs and opinions of the West, there has been at work another 
force, perhaps even more potent and active, — that of railroad 
oppression. The Pacific railroads from the first watered their 
stocks. The earnings at ordinary rates were insufficient to war- 
rant dividends on the increased capitalization. In order to pay 
these, an enormous income was necessary, and the only w r ay to 
obtain this was to impose heavier charges on freight, and for 
many years this practice was maintained. Although the rates 



696 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

were reduced later, the extortion practiced has caused a hatred 
of railroads and other corporations. Protests arose from all sides, 
and the Farmers' Alliance with other similar organizations, shaped 
the movement until the meeting at Cincinnati in 1891 brought 
the People's Party into existence. Although there were other 
material causes of the movement, it was the sentiment of the 
Western representatives which shaped the platform in regard to 
railroads and telegraphs, and from this section came much of 
the socialism introduced into the platform. 

The question naturally arises, Why do the socialist papers hurl 
all kinds of invectives at the new organization and, if it is really 
socialistic, refuse to consider it worthy to be classed with social- 
istic parties ? A quotation from the People, the leading jour- 
nalistic exponent of that belief in the United States, may cast 
some light on the question. " The plan of the silverites to make 
the People's Party more reactionary than it was, has been sub- 
stantially carried out." So long as the silver element in the party 
was not predominant, the socialists had no objections to the plat- 
form of the Omaha convention ; but when financial questions 
began to overshadow the other planks, then the cry of "We told 
you so " was raised, and the People's Party was declared to have 
betrayed the principles set forth in its platform. The National 
Watchman said soon after : " The time for Populism and Social- 
ism to part has come, and those who fail to realize the situation 
will have, in the future, ample time to reflect upon their error in 
judgment. What we want now is a clear-cut, aggressive, intelli- 
gent propaganda upon financial reform." Even this conservative 
Populist paper recognized the fact that there is such a thing as 
socialism in the party. The parting did- come at Omaha, but not 
as then hoped by the writer of the editorial. The silver and 
financial reform advocates instead of the adherents of the entire 
platform were forced to retire. 

The Omaha platform of the People's Party is a remarkable 
document in many ways, and one of its peculiarities is the ambi- 
guity encountered at every turn. Its whole tone is socialistic. 
Yet if the charge of socialism were brought against it, the 
defender of the platform could at once deny the assertion, and 



THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 



697 



define the section attacked in such a way as to refute the state- 
ment. This ambiguity is due to the two opinions prevailing in 
the convention which framed the platform, and to the endeavor 
to satisfy both. There was, on the one hand, the real element 
of the party itself and, on the other, the silver advocates who 
had been drawn to the new party in the hope of advancing their 
cause. It was for the purpose of appeasing the more conserva- 
tive element that the platform was softened in places and the 
utterances on certain subjects made less positive. But despite 
the ambiguity of the platform as a whole, there are to be found 
certain positive declarations of principles which may be compared 
with the purposes of the socialist. By this means the real simi- 
larity of the two views, if there be any 



SOCIALIST 1 
Abolition of inheritance in land or 
other means of production, such 
as machinery, railroads, tele- 
graphs, and canals. 
Abolition of private property in 
land or any other means of the 
production of wealth. 
Abolition of wages system. 
Abolition of competitive system. 
National ownership of land. 



will appear. 

PEOPLE'S PARTY 



6. National ownership of railroads 
and telegraphs. 

7. A graded income tax. 

8. A paper currency or fiat money. 

9. Abolition of national banks. 

o. The public lands to be declared 
inalienable. Revocation of all 
land grants to corporations or in- 
dividuals, the conditions of which 
have not been complied with. 



" The land, including all the natural 
sources of wealth, is the heritage of 
the people and should not be monop- 
olized for speculative purposes." 

National ownership of telegraphs and 
railroads. 

A graded income tax. 

A paper currency or fiat money. 

Abolition of national banks. 

"Alien ownership of land should be 
prohibited. All lands now held by 
railroads and other corporations in 
excess of their actual needs should 
be reclaimed by the government and 
held for actual settlers only." 



10 in platform of Socialist Labor Party of the United States 



in platform of Central Labor Union of Cleveland, 
M Socialism and Universal Suffrage," p. 19. 



12. 13. 14 
Ohio; 1-9 given in Cook's 



698 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



1. Establishment of postal-deposit 
and savings banks. 



1 2. Adoption of constitutional amend- 
ment requiring the election of 
president and vice-president by 
the direct vote of the people. 
Also providing for election of the 
United States senators by direct 
vote of the people. 

13. Rigid enforcement of eight-hour 
law in all public departments. 



14. Adoption of the initiative and of 
the referendum. 



"We demand that postal savings 
banks be established by the govern- 
ment for the safe deposit of the 
earnings of the people and to facili- 
tate exchange." 

" That we favor a constitutional pro- 
vision limiting the office of presi- 
dent and vice-president to one term 
and providing for the election of 
the senators by a direct vote of the 
people." 

" That we demand a rigid enforcement 
of the existing eight-hour law on 
government work, and ask that a 
penalty clause be added to the said 
law." 

" That we commend to the thoughtful 
consideration of the people and the 
reform press the legislative system 
known as the initiative and refer- 
endum." 



The fourteen demands of socialism have been selected with care 
and with the desire to secure a representative list of the various 
principles and tenets set forth by them. They are taken from 
the planks of the various socialistic parties and truly reflect the 
opinions of socialism. In comparing the planks of the People's 
Party platform, we find that nine of them correspond closely to 
those of the socialists. Such a similarity is not an accident, but 
the result of thought along the same lines. The People's Party 
could not have adopted a platform in so many ways akin to that 
of the socialists if there had not been a previous tendency in that 
direction. It is true that the great fundamental principles of 
common ownership and equality of income are not expressed, nor 
is the last even hinted ; yet the national ownership of the railroad 
and telegraph, coupled with a demand for increased State action, 
can only characterize the platform as socialistic in its tendency. 



AN ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 
IN THE UNITED STATES 

By C. F. Emerick 

(From the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XI, September and December, 
1896; Vol. XII, March, 1897) 

[Many footnotes are omitted from this reprint. The reader is referred to the 
original article. — Ed.] 

INTRODUCTION 

THE closing years of the nineteenth century are witnessing 
the unusual spectacle of restless discontent on the part of 
the tiller of the soil. Nearly every civilized country has its 
agrarian problem in one form or another. In England few 
expressions are more familiar than that of agricultural oppression. 
Germany has a storm center of agrarian difficulties. Even the 
peasants of France, concerning whose social contentment and 
conservative influence in political affairs so much has been said, 
have in recent years become aroused, and clamor for activity in 
behalf of their interests on the part of the government. A simi- 
lar state of affairs appears to exist among the farming classes of 
the other nations of Europe. A writer in an English periodical 
in 1893 thus sums up the situation : 

Almost everywhere, certainly in England, France, Germany, Italy, Scandi- 
navia and the United States, the agriculturists, formerly so instinctively con- 
servative, are becoming fiercely discontented, declare they have gained less by 
civilization than the rest of the community, and are looking about for remedies 
of a drastic nature. In England they are hoping for aid from councils of all 
kinds ; in France they have put on protective duties which have been increased 
in vain twice over ; in Germany they put on the relaxed similar duties, and are 
screaming for them again ; in Scandinavia — Denmark more particularly — 
they limit the aggregation of land; and in the United States they create 
organizations like the Grangers, the Farmers' League, and the Populists. 

It has become customary to speak of the rural population as a 
counterpoise in political affairs to the artisans of the cities. Until 



700 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

recently the practical politician expected comparatively little shift- 
ing in the political allegiance of his rural constituents : the voters 
in cities were the uncertain element in his game. The isolation 
of the agriculturists renders it difficult for them to be suddenly 
moved by a common impulse, such as is necessary to break party 
ties and cause a cleavage from traditional political connections. 
A property interest in the soil, such as is secured by the general 
prevalence of land ownership or an equitable system of tenantry, 
is also a most influential factor in rendering the farmer instinc- 
tively cautious and conservative. In the vigorous language of an 
English writer : " Peasant proprietorship is the one great force 
in a democratic country which opposes most strongly the doctrines 
of plunder and confiscation." In view, therefore, of the tradi- 
tional habit of mind of rural populations, their present condition 
of unrest in nearly every civilized land is most extraordinary. 
During the past few years this condition in the United States 
has produced a political party which, gaining rapidly in power, 
disrupting the political associations of a lifetime and disappoint- 
ing the calculations of the most astute politicians, has captured 
the electoral vote of several states and placed a number of its 
representatives in each house of Congress. 

Such considerations — the prevalence of agrarian problems 
throughout the civilized world, their unexpected character, and the 
precipitation of the disturbed state of the agricultural mind in the 
United States into a formidable political organization — cannot 
but enlist the interest of the student of economic and social re- 
lations. In a country like our own, endowed by nature with such 
lavish abundance and fertility of soil, discontent among the agri- 
cultural classes is an unusually fascinating subject for study. It is 
the purpose of this essay to analyze this discontent with the object 
of determining to what extent it rests upon economic grievances, 
how far its explanation is found in a growth of social wants, to 
what degree it can be attributed to the nature of the farmer's 
business, and how much it has been intensified in recent years by 
special conditions. 

For the purpose of determining the economic condition of the 
American farmer, I shall consider in the present study the relative 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 701 

increase of rural and urban populations, the relative increase of 
rural and urban wealth, and the relation of agriculture to trans- 
portation. A second study will be occupied with the increase of 
farm mortgages and farm tenants, and the remedies proposed in 
the interest of the farmer. A third or concluding study will con- 
sider to what extent social influences, the nature of the farmer's 
business, and special causes, in addition to economic conditions, 
have promoted the discontent of the American farmer. 

I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RELATIVE INCREASE OF 
RURAL AND URBAN POPULATIONS 

No fact of our time is more noteworthy than the rapid multipli- 
cation and concentration of population in cities. The census of 
1790 showed that in the United States 3.35 per cent of the popu- 
lation lived in cities of 8000 or over, while in 1880 the percent- 
age was 22.57, an d in 1890 it had risen to 29.2. From 1880 to 
1890, while the whole population gained 24.86 per cent, that of 
cities increased 61 per cent, and the farming population 15 per 
cent. Of every 100 increase of population during the same decade 
only an average of 33 made their homes in the country and in 
villages of less than 1000 inhabitants ; the other 6 J resided in 
centers of population of 1000 or over. Thus, during the first 
century of our national life, the proportion of the population sub- 
ject to the conditions of urban life increased from one-thirtieth 
to almost one-third. 

Such facts are pointed to by some as evidence that American 
agriculture is unprofitable and in process of decline. That such a 
conclusion is necessary, however, does not follow. In every pro- 
gressive society where the forces of nature have been substituted 
for those of man, a similar movement of population is taking 
place. A distinguished writer has said : ■ ; The nineteenth century 
is closing upon a race that is destined, for the great majority, to 
live in cities, or under conditions more or less strictly urban." In 
no country have city populations made more phenomenal gains 
within recent years than in Germany. Berlin, for example, was in 
1894 three times as large as in i860 ; and although behind New 



702 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

York City in 1870, it now leads that city in population. During 
the past twenty years it has added twice as much to its population 
as Philadelphia and as many actual new residents as Chicago. 
Hamburg has added more to its population since 1875 than Bos- 
ton or Baltimore ; Leipzig more than St. Louis ; Munich more 
than Cincinnati. Scarcely less remarkable is the recent growth 
of urban populations in France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Scotland, 
and England. In fact, it appears that there is not a single instance 
of the rapid expansion of city populations in the United States 
that cannot be duplicated in Great Britain or on the Continent. 

There can be no doubt that increased efficiency of agriculture 
throughout a large part of the world has been the fundamental 
condition of this growth of cities. " When Malthus wrote, the 
labor of a person sufficed to raise food for 10 persons : at present 
in the United States a male adult can raise food for 120 persons." 
Better methods of husbandry, the use of superior implements, 
specialization of agricultural production and vastly improved trans- 
portation facilities, whereby large areas of new lands have been 
brought under cultivation, have been indispensable to this increase 
in productive efficiency, in consequence of which a relatively 
smaller part of the world's population is required to produce the 
food supply. "In each succeeding decade since 1850 there has 
been in all countries a marked tendency of rural population to 
emigrate to the towns ; and although the rural ratio of inhabitants 
has seriously diminished, there has been an increase of tillage in 
consequence of machinery displacing labor." Although the ratio 
of rural population has declined in both Europe and America, 
while the total population has increased but 34 per cent, the 
area under tillage has risen 55 per cent. 

Moreover, the agriculture of those countries having the smallest 
urban population is generally in a most unproductive condition. 
" All nations in which more than half the laborers are in agri- 
culture are comparatively poor, and their rural processes are primi- 
tive, their implements rude, their rate of production low." In 
India, for example, eighty per cent of the whole population is 
closely connected with the land, and yet agriculture is there con- 
ducted so ineffectively that the masses of the people never know 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 703 

what it is to have enough of even the bare necessities of life, and 
the yearly income of each member of the nation is but two pounds, 
while in England it is thirty-three. Again, when serfdom was 
abolished in Prussia in 1807, the agriculture of the country was 
so inefficient that seven-eighths of the people thus engaged were 
able to produce only a very inadequate food supply. " By the 
year 1867 the agricultural population . . . had fallen to forty- 
eight per cent ; and thirty-nine persons more than in 18 16, out of 
every one hundred, were thus set free from the fields to take part 
in those industries which contribute to clothe and shelter a popu- 
lation or minister to its higher wants." Yet the allowance of food 
that fell to each was not only one-third greater in quantity, but 
better in quality than in the wretched days of serfdom. It is well 
known, also, that in the days of slavery in the South a very small 
portion of the people were subject to the conditions of city life. 
The industrial organization which rested upon slavery made the 
factory system impossible, and agriculture was inefficient, slovenly, 
and wasteful in the extreme. One qualified to speak has said : 

Main strength, human muscle, unassisted by intelligent skill, was slavery's 
method of labor. With a capital of about sixty dollars in the shape of a good- 
natured old ox, attached to the end of a stout rope, New Bedford, Massachu- 
setts, did the work of ten or twelve thousand dollars, represented in the bones 
and muscles of slaves, and did it far better. In a word, I found everything 
managed with a more scrupulous regard to economy, both of men and things, 
time and strength, than in the country from which I had come. 

Further, "prices of grain, meat, etc., are invariably lower in 
countries where the bulk of the people are engaged in agriculture 
than in those which are given chiefly to manufactures. On the other 
hand, all manufactured products are cheaper in countries where 
agriculture is of little importance." From the point of view of civi- 
lization, also, those nations having the smallest percentage of city 
dwellers can hardly be classed in the first rank. Compare Russia, 
for example, with England, or Turkey with the United States. 

The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is clear. The 
inference that the growth of cities in the United States is con- 
clusive evidence of a less profitable condition of agriculture than 
formerly existed, or that it points to the economic decline of the 



704 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

American farmer, is unwarranted. Whatever may be the condi- 
tion of agriculture, the relatively greater increase of urban than 
of rural population cannot be assigned as decisive proof that it 
is in process of economic decline. 

II. AN EXPLANATION OF THE RELATIVE INCREASE OF 
RURAL AND URBAN WEALTH 

The wonderful rapidity with which wealth has been produced 
and accumulated in the United States has attracted the attention 
of publicists and economists of nearly every land. Notwithstand- 
ing the appalling loss inflicted by the Civil War, and in spite of 
the periodical occurrence of panics and commercial depressions, 
the nation has gone forward in the conquest of wealth with un- 
precedented and almost incredible celerity. The following figures 
are sufficient testimony to the correctness of this statement : 



i860 
1880 
1890 



Wealth of the United 
States 



5 1 6, 1 60,000,000 
43,642,000,000 
65,037,000,000 



Dollars per 
Inhabitant 



870 
1036 



So readily have material things been brought into existence 
and with such facility are they fashioned to suit the most fastid- 
ious of tastes that questions of production are no longer the 
burning issues of the hour. The machinery of production has 
been so far perfected that there is no longer any fear of its in- 
adequacy to satisfy the needs of all. The questions that have 
come to concern nineteenth-century society relate rather to dis- 
tribution than to production. Let us therefore inquire as to the 
distribution of the wealth which the above figures exhibit. The 
table on the next page classifies the wealth between the two great 
groups of American producers. The figures indicate that during 
the last forty years rural wealth has quadrupled, while that of the 
cities has increased sixteenfold. The prevalent opinion, therefore, 
that the cities are outstripping the rural districts in the accumula- 
tion of wealth appears to rest upon a solid foundation of fact. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



705 





Urban Wealth 


Rural Wealth 


Percentage 
of Urban 


Total 
Rural 








Per ce?it 


Per cent 


1850 


$3,169,000,000 


$3,967,000,000 


44 


56 


i860 


8,l8o,000,000 


7,980,000,000 


5 1 


49 


1870 


15,155,000,000 


8,900,000,000 


63 


37 


1880 


31,538,000,000 


12,104,000,000 


72 


28 


1890 


49,055,000,000 


15,982,000,000 


75 


2 5 





What is to be said in explanation of the relatively greater 
progress of the cities in wealth ? Has it been achieved by de- 
priving the farmer of a portion of his earnings ? In reply to 
these questions, it is to be observed that the unparalleled accumu- 
lation of wealth that has marked the career of the United States 
has for the most part taken place since the introduction of steam 
as a motive power, and that prior thereto the disproportionate 
distribution of wealth between city and country did not exist. 
The following table shows the increase of steam power in the 
United States since 1840: 

HORSE POWER OF STEAM IN THE UNITED STATES 







1840 


1860 


1880 


1895 


Fixed 


360,000 
200,000 
200,000 


800,000 

1 ,800,000 

900.OOO 


2,186,000 
3,700,000 
1,200,000 


3,940,000 

10,800,000 

2,200,000 


Locomotives 

Steamboats 


Total 


760,000 


3,500,000 


9,086,000 


16,940,000 



This table should be compared with the one given above show- 
ing the distribution of wealth. Such a comparison renders it 
unnecessary to argue that the swiftness with which wealth has 
been produced and accumulated in the United States would have 
been impossible in the absence of steam. In illustration of the 
efficiency of steam as a wealth-producer in the industrial world 
a single comparison will suffice. It is estimated that by con- 
verting the energy stored up in coal into steam the productive 
efficiency of labor is multiplied six hundred times. 



7<d6 readings in rural economics 

But why is it that in the distribution of the wealth that has 
thus been created the cities have absorbed such a disproportion- 
ate amount ? An answer to this question will involve an analysis 
of the tendencies of steam as a wealth-producer. In this way we 
may hope to understand also whether the cities have prospered 
at the expense of the farmer, or whether their progress is due 
to the operation of normal economic law. 

i. Steam as a motive power in the operations of the farm 
has never admitted of direct practical application to any consider- 
able extent. Except in the work of threshing, it has been ex- 
ploited to only a slight degree in farm economy. Consequently, 
the volume of farm produce has not been greatly increased or 
its cost of production very much cheapened through the influence 
of steam-driven machinery. Indirectly, however, the use of steam 
in transportation and in the manufacture of farm implements 
has affected agriculture in both these respects, and in numerous 
others so important as to call for separate treatment in the 
following section of this study. 

2. It is in pursuits other than those of the farm that we 
must look for the whereabouts of the 16,940,000 horse power 
of steam which the table given above shows to have existed in 
the United States in 1895. The process by which such an enor- 
mous amount of power has been absorbed in the industries of 
modern life is a matter of no little interest. In this connection, 
it is pertinent to observe that the utilization of steam made the era 
of invention a necessity. Its employment as a motive power stim- 
ulated the inventive ingenuity of man. As a consequence, nu- 
merous ingenious contrivances have been put to work, propelled 
by an invisible force, so cheapening production that commodities 
once luxuries for the rich have come to be almost necessaries of 
life to the masses of the people. Consumption has thus been 
so enormously increased that employments once offering work to 
only a few now demand hosts of toilers. Compare, for example, 
the business of transportation before and since the time of the 
railway. Steam power, steel rails, and other inventions have 
rendered the swift and certain movement of persons and com- 
modities one of the daily necessities of the multitude. Since 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 707 

1870, $1,000,000 a day have been spent in railway construction 
giving employment to labor ; and now in the United States an 
army of nearly a million men are employed, directly and indi- 
rectly, in transportation. Again, when Arkwright invented his 
cotton-spinning machinery in 1760, there were 5200 spinners 
and 2700 weavers, or 7900 in all; while in 1887 there were 
320,000, an increase of over 4000 per cent. In 1833 the number 
employed at spinning, weaving, and calico-printing was 800,000 
and in 1887, 2,500,000. Notwithstanding the displacement of 
labor by machinery, the increased demand, owing to reduction 
in the price and improvement in the quality of the articles man- 
ufactured under new conditions, has operated not only to prevent 
any material reduction in the rates of wages or in the number of 
employees, but even largely to increase both. It is obvious that 
the industrial opportunities thus thrown open have mainly been 
such as to stimulate immensely the creation of those new forms 
of wealth which go to swell the sum total of values in cities. 

Intimately connected with these facts is the difference in the 
nature of the human wants which the industries of the farm and 
of the city supply. Those met by the former are mainly physical, 
while those supplied by the latter are social. 

" Physical wants . . . cannot be increased in each individual to 
any considerable extent. The stomach of the savage will con- 
sume as much as that of the civilized man ; hence the effectual 
demand, through this class of wants, can only increase in about 
the same ratio as population. . . . Social wants are essentially 
different in all of their characteristics. They are the result of 
social, rather than cosmic, influences. They can be increased in- 
definitely in each individual, and can consequently be multiplied 
much faster than the population." 

The influence of labor-saving contrivances in agriculture has 
consequently tended to eliminate the man from the farm. 
Mr. E. V. Smalley states that " the farmer of our day, with the 
help of machinery, exerts a productive force equal to that of 
three men in the days of his grandfather " ; and Mr. Atkinson 
has estimated that, by the aid of improved means of transporta- 
tion and specialization of industry, the labor of one man on the 



708 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



plains of Dakota is sufficient to furnish one hundred and forty 
in Boston with bread. Not thus, however, with social wants ; 
they are unlimited and tend to multiply faster than population. 
Consequently, in satisfying such wants, it is economically possible 
to substitute machinery or natural forces for man in increasing 
the volume and cheapening the cost of the needed commodities. 
The labor thereby set free is again absorbed, either in meeting 
the greatly increased consumption brought about by cheaper pro- 
duction, or in satisfying other social wants which it is the nature 
of a progressive society to evolve. 

Owing to such facts, although the number of persons ten 
years of age or over employed at farming declined from 20.78 
per cent of the population in 1870 to 17.48 per cent in 1890, 
the number of persons employed in all remunerative employments 
advanced from 32.43 per cent to 34.68 per cent ; the number 
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical industries increased 
from 8.28 per cent in i860 to 10.74 per cent in 1890; and 
those engaged in trade, transportation, domestic service, and pro- 
fessional employments increased in the same period from 13.7 
per cent to 19.74 per cent. 

The following table reflects the more rapid production of 
urban than of rural wealth : 



Year 




Capital Em- 


Number of 


Net Value of 


Per Capita 




ployed 


Workers 


Product 


. Product 


1870 


Agriculture 


$8,899,966,998 


5,922,741 


$1,958,030,927 


#333 




Manufacturing 


1,694,567,015 


2,053,996 


$1,743,898,200 


680 




Mining 


222,384,854 


154,328 


138,323.303 


717 


1880 


Agriculture 


12,104,001,538 


7,670,493 


2,212,540,927 


288 




Manufacturing 


2,790,272,606 


2,732,625 


I,972,755>642 


722 




Mining 




286,806 


194,969,849 


683 


1890 


Agriculture 


15,982,267,689 


8,466,363 


2,460,107,454 


290 




Manufacturing 


6,525,156,486 


4,712,622 


4,210,393,207 


893 




Mining 


1,340,000,000 


636,419 


471,356,527 


740 



These figures tell their own story. With less than half the 
capital employed in agriculture, manufactures and mining have 
since 1870 annually created a per capita product two to three 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 709 

times as great. The adaptability of steam to non-agricultural 
industries and the nature of human wants are factors of para- 
mount importance in 'creating this disparity in the production of 
agricultural and non-agricultural wealth. 

3. Another explanation of the concentrating tendency of steam 
is found in the fact that steam power cannot be economically 
transmitted long distances. This has necessitated the erection of 
large factories close by the power-generating plant rather than the 
distribution of a number of small establishments at considerable 
distances apart. 

4. Apart from the nature of steam, the factory system of 
industry, as it exists today, is most favorable to economy of 
production for reasons peculiar to itself. To carry out the prin- 
ciple of the division of labor to the fullest extent, it is necessary 
that large numbers of men be assembled for work under one 
management in the same building. Further, in any industry 
requiring a large amount of machinery, the cost of protecting the 
machinery is less when it is concentrated under a single roof. It 
is evident, therefore, that the economy of production secured by the 
factory system inevitably tends to create urban wealth and to com- 
mit workmen to the socializing influences of city life. There has 
consequently resulted a " limitation in the variety of work carried 
on in . . . rural establishments. Of old, nearly all the articles 
which entered into the family life of an agriculturist were made 
in the household. Cloth of various kinds, candles, soap, the 
greater part of the tools, even the worked timber used in the edi- 
fices, were of domestic manufacture. This is no longer the case 
in those parts of the country which have been subjected to mod- 
ernizing influences. The ever-progressive division of labor and 
the rapid extension of commerce made possible by improvements 
in the methods of transportation have led to the removal of 
many industries from the farm to the factory, where, by the use 
of machinery and trained labor, many articles can be made more 
cheaply and perfectly than under the domestic roof." 

5. As the almost indispensable motive power in transportation, 
steam has promoted still further the aggregation of wealth in 
cities. Reference is not here made to the effect of arbitrary and 



710 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

unjust discriminations practiced by railway corporations. The 
influence to which attention is directed arises from the very 
nature of transportation — from the fact that interruptions in the 
transport of commodities are unavoidable, and that, wherever they 
occur, wealth and population tend to collect. Interruptions in 
transportation have been classified as mechanical and commercial. 
The former necessitates the transfer of passengers and the re- 
handling of commodities, while the latter involves in addition a 
change in the ownership of property. Both classes of interrup- 
tions, but especially the latter, concentrate population and tend to 
the aggregation of wealth. The vastness of the territory of the 
United States, resulting in the need of distributing centers, has 
given rise to numerous commercial breaks ; and their influence 
in promoting the wealth of cities cannot be doubted. Moreover, 
three-fourths of the steam power of the United States is engaged 
in water and land carriage ; and the volume of the latter alone is 
twice that of all the rest of the world, so that any interruption 
in its movement becomes extremely influential and worthy of 
consideration. But the application of steam to transportation has 
been influential in still other ways in promoting the prosperity 
and piling up the wealth of cities. This is well illustrated in its 
effect upon the relation of the inland town to the commercial 
metropolis. When men reached the interior by horse power, by 
the ox team or on foot, the rural town had a living chance to 
advance in wealth and population. For the industrial army which 
had moved into the wilderness or the open country, the rural 
village was the new base of supplies. . The commissariat must go 
along with the columns. The large center was too far away. But 
the coming of the railway bridged the distance. It brought the 
village ten or twenty miles away in touch with the great city, 
making it a sort of suburb. The outlying depot of supplies is 
no longer needed ; the railway train has taken the place of the 
country storehouse. 

6. Industries monopolistic in character, such as trusts, and espe- 
cially street railways, waterworks, gas and electric-light plants, 
which become increasingly valuable with growth of population 
and social development, are for the most part located in cities, 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 711 

and are important factors in swelling the sum total of urban 
wealth. On the other hand, the business of the agriculturist is 
not capable of monopoly control. The great number and the iso- 
lation of agricultural producers render practically impossible pools 
designed to control the output of food products. Moreover, agri- 
culture is so largely dependent upon cosmic forces, over which 
man exercises little or no control, that even were a combination 
of agriculturists successfully organized, it would be impossible for 
it to regulate the volume of food products and thereby control 
prices. Such considerations throw still further light upon the 
more rapid accumulation of urban than of rural wealth. 

7. The fact that special knowledge or skill is not indispen- 
sable in the performance of many operations upon the farm is 
also deserving of attention. It is not intended to say that the 
labors of the skilled, intelligent, and energetic agriculturist are 
not more largely rewarded than those of the unskilled, ignorant, 
and slovenly cultivator ; but that there are .few occupations where 
mediocre ability and lack of thrift can manage to eke out an 
existence with as much certainty as upon the farm. A lack of 
ordinary enterprise and energy is in many other pursuits much 
sooner overtaken with disaster. In explanation of this it may be 
said that agriculture is often dependent quite as much upon fa- 
vorable climatic conditions as upon the human element, while in 
some other lines of industrial activity the personal qualities of 
the worker are to a much greater degree determinant of success. 
Consequently, many inefficient and thriftless cultivators who 
could scarcely earn a livelihood at anything else are not speedily 
weeded out of the business, but continue to contribute to the 
abundance of the world's food supply. Partly owing to the com- 
petition of this class of farmers, and to the dependence of agri- 
culture upon conditions which man is powerless to control, the 
better-directed labors of men possessing more than average skill 
and intelligence are less amply rewarded than those of men of the 
same ability in other walks of life. On the other hand, the occu- 
pations of city life afford industrial opportunity for the exercise 
of that administrative ability and technical skill which in modern 
society is most amply rewarded. The highly paid executive talent 



712 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

required for the successful management of the corporations which 
Control the great industrial enterprises of modern times finds 
the seat of its business activity within the confines of cities. 
Further, those engaged in professional pursuits who receive large 
rewards for their services, as well as the large and increasing 
class of skilled and well-paid mechanics found in every progres- 
sive society, live in the midst of city surroundings. Owing to the 
inertia of the agriculturist and his inability to adapt himself to 
many of the more highly paid positions of the city, the unequal 
rewards of urban and rural workers are not rapidly reduced to a 
level. That is, city and country form two distinct and non-com- 
petitive groups of industrial society. The foregoing suggestions 
still further explain the greater progress of the cities in the race 
for riches. 

8. Our study has thus far been confined to the economic 
forces in modern society which have promoted the more rapid 
increase and accumulation of urban than of rural wealth. But 
the problem we are considering is not explainable on economic 
grounds alone. These are fundamental, for economy of produc- 
tion has made necessary concentration of wealth in cities, and 
this has made concentration of population indispensable to getting 
a living ; but the social tendencies of our century have also been 
toward the densely populated centers. Cities, with their density 
of population and vast aggregation of values, are not only essen- 
tial to economy of production, but are also able to command such 
superior and attractive social, educational, and religious advantages 
that many people of means move from the farm to the city. In 
the olden time, before the rise of the factory system, many who 
longed for social life had to endure the loneliness, dullness, and 
monotony flowing from the isolation of farm life. But the advent 
of the railroad and the rise of the modern system of industry 
provide for such an avenue of escape to the greater social oppor- 
tunities of city life. All the advantages which man's social nature 
craves — the theater, the picture gallery, the public library, church 
privileges, the daily newspaper, intercourse with one's fellow men, 
the sight of the bustling crowd — in short, all that goes to make 
social opportunity, are to be had most readily near the great 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 713 

industrial centers. Our educational systems and all the intellectual 
forces of our time stimulate a mental activity which seeks some 
professional pursuit in the midst of the bustle and whirl of the 
city ; the road to political preferment and social distinction also 
leads from the quiet of the country home to the noisier scenes 
of the city ; and the enviable success achieved by some who have 
left the country and gone to the town fires the social ambition 
and creates among those who have remained on the farm a feel- 
ing of unrest, which accelerates the movement of population to 
the busier fields of action. Finally, the inclination of the rising 
generation for city life is still further stimulated by a feeling 
more or less prevalent that the young woman who supplies city 
customers with butter, or the young man who soils his hands 
with the dirt of honest toil on the farm, is somehow socially infe- 
rior to the one who as a clerk in a city store sells goods over 
the counter. All of these social considerations have stimulated 
the flow of population from country to city, have given rise to 
urban residences, have furnished laborers for the industrial ex- 
pansion of cities, and have contributed toward hastening their 
progress in wealth. 

In the course of our study of the relative increase of rural and 
urban wealth we have arrived at the following conclusions : 

a. While the increase of wealth in the United States has been 
phenomenal, its distribution is such that three-fourths of the 
aggregate amount is today found in cities. 

b. This unequal distribution of wealth is, if we have been 
correct in our analysis, due chiefly to the new industrial organi- 
zation introduced through the agency of steam power. 

c. The wealth-concentrating influence of steam is due to the 
fact that it has admitted in only a limited degree of direct appli- 
cation to agricultural production, to the difference between man's 
physical and social wants, to the fact that steam power cannot 
be economically transmitted long distances, and to its use as an 
agent in transportation. Other influential factors in enriching 
the cities have been the economy of the factory system of produc- 
tion, the private ownership of monopolistic industries, the fact 
that successful crop production is determined quite as much by 



714 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

climatic as by human influences, and the force of social con- 
siderations. So far as anything disclosed by our analysis is 
concerned, therefore, with the single exception of the private 
ownership of monopolies, there is no evidence that urban wealth 
has been accumulated at the expense of the farmer. 

III. THE RELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO 
TRANSPORTATION 

Influence of means of transportation upon the migration and 
the geographical concentration of agricultural production. Within 
the memory of many now living, the Genesee valley led the 
whole country in the production of wheat. At the present time, 
not only has the center of wheat production changed from New 
York to Minnesota and Dakota, but the milling industry has 
migrated from Rochester to Minneapolis. 

Of the total wheat crop of 1839, 61.52 per cent was produced 
in four states, containing only 5.84 per cent of the entire surface 
of the country ; fifty years later those states produced only 1 5 .66 
per cent of the total, and four others, containing 1 1.01 per cent of 
the total land surface, produced 35.85 per cent of the total crop. 
Of the total production of oats in 1839, 56.2 per cent was pro- 
duced in four states containing 5.84 per cent of the entire land 
surface of the country. In 1889, 48.82 per cent was grown in 
four other states, containing 8.25 per cent of the total land surface. 

The explanation of this wandering of agricultural enterprise 
and localization in new fields of production is to be found in the 
American railway system. The chart on the opposite page ex- 
hibits the relationship between the extension of railway mileage 
west of the Mississippi and the increase in the area devoted to 
the production of corn and wheat. Capacity, cheapness, speed, 
and independence of the natural features of the earth's surface 
have been the elements that have contributed to the efficiency of 
the American railway and have rendered the development of 
agricultural industry so dependent upon it. According to an 
English writer, J. Stephen Jeans, the American is superior to 
the English railway system in all these respects. In no particular, 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



715 



however, do American railways make a better showing than in 

the matter of cheapness. The last report of the statistician to 

the Interstate Commerce Commission gives the following rates 

per ton-mile for several nations of the .world: Great Britain, 3.2 

cents, France, 2.2 cents, Germany, 1.64 cents, United States, 

.866 cents. The fact 

that at the average rate isto 1875 isso 1885 isoo 

of 1882 the railway 

freight traffic of the 70 

United States for the ss 

twelve years ending 

June 30, 1894, would 

have yielded the railway 55 

companies $2,629,- 

°43j459 more than 

they received at the 

rates charged, gives 40 

one some conception 

of the extent to which 

railway freight rates so 

have been reduced. 

In bringing about 
this reduction several 
forces have been prom- 15 
inent : 

1 . Greater economy 
in the cost of railway 
construction and opera- 
tion. The use of steel 

rails, the enlarged capacity of cars, the increase in their live 
weight, the straightening of curves, the leveling of grades, the 
improvements in traction power, the reduced cost of railway sup- 
plies, the lengthening of the long haul and, perhaps fully as much 
as anything else, the consolidation of railway lines have been 
influential factors in this matter. 

2. A great increase in the volume of the traffic. In 1870 the 
states west of the Mississippi consumed nearly all of their products 



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y\6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

at home ; but now Nebraska alone, after supplying her home 
market, sends east "450 cars of bread and meat products every 
day in the year." " Every additional carload of east-bound prod- 
uct from the Missouri River lessens the cost of every other car- 
load," and, consequently, compared with twenty- five years ago, 
" nearly three-fourths of the cost of transportation from the Mis- 
souri River to New York has been stricken off, and Nebraska is 
over one thousand miles nearer the Atlantic seaboard." 

% % yfc yfc sfc yfc yfc yfc yfc 7& 

In our analysis of the relation of agriculture to means of 
transportation we have arrived at the following conclusions : 

1. The development of modern transportation facilities has 
been the prime agency in causing a migration of agricultural 
industry, and in tending to concentrate it geographically in new 
fields of production. 

2. The American railway system has been the indispensable 
condition for the settlement and development of the greater part 
of the United States, and its extension throughout the Central 
and Western states has contributed towards increasing marvelously 
their agricultural wealth. 

IV. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCREASE OF FARM 
MORTGAGES AND OF FARM TENANTS 

As introductory to this part of our study stands the fact that 
between 1880 and 1890 the amount of mortgage indebtedness 
upon acre tracts, in distinction from city lots, increased 71 per 
cent, or two and one-third times as fast as agricultural wealth. 
What is the significance of this enormous increase ? Is it con- 
sistent with permanent economic and social progress ? A satis- 
factory answer to these questions involves an analysis of the 
increase, and of the burden of mortgage indebtedness. 

The increase of mortgage indebtedness. It must first be noted, 
in connection with this topic, that 83 per cent of the growing 
volume of mortgage debt, 1 880-1 890, was incurred to enable 
debtors to buy lands, erect buildings, and make other improve- 
ments, and that more than 94 per cent of it represents durable 
property. The object for which this increasing indebtedness was 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 717 

incurred indicates that it was voluntarily assumed — that, in the 
judgment of those who subjected themselves to its burden, there 
was reasonable ground to expect success to attend their venture. 
The owners of capital who made the loans were evidently of the 
same opinion. Professor Gunton has rightly said : 

Debts, it is true, are often contracted to relieve personal distress, or to pre- 
vent a great loss of capital. . . . But this is not the chief function of debts. 
It occupies about the same relation to borrowing, as a whole, that auction 
sales do to the traffic of the merchants. 

At the same time, the fact that the employment of credit is 
increasingly necessary on the part of those who are struggling 
for industrial independence, is indicative of an inequality in- the 
distribution of wealth. 

The psychological conditions that have promoted the vast ex- 
tension in the use of credit in general have played a part in the 
increase of mortgage debt. Of chief importance here is the 
tendency of the American people to discount the future in their 
calculations and undertakings. Past experience shows such phe- 
nomenal social and material prosperity that it is natural for them 
to be animated with a spirit of hopefulness. As a consequence, 
debts are incurred, risks are assumed, and enterprises started with 
a courage born of confidence in the future. It is probable that 
this spirit of unexampled and undoubted faith in the industrial 
future of the country is largely responsible for the startling 
growth of mortgage indebtedness. 

That such a spirit stimulates borrowing is a truism. During 
every panic and period of commercial depression mortgage debts 
are contracted with reluctance, while during times of business 
revival and prosperity they are incurred as a matter of course. 
When the atmosphere is filled with hope, when confidence is 
unbounded, when there is not a threatening cloud above the in- 
dustrial horizon — then it is that men of enterprise willingly 
assume the obligations of mortgage debt, and that capital most 
cordially welcomes the borrower. In accordance with this theory, 
we should expect a large amount of mortgage indebtedness in 
countries where the future is brightest, where industrial develop- 
ment is yet in its youth, and where there are many in the prime of 



71 8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

life, full of expectancy, industrious and aspiring to build homes. 
On the contrary, where nature has been most miserly in bestow- 
ing her riches, where social and political conditions are unsettled, 
and where there is a population whose lives have been full of 
disappointment and who are by nature pessimistic — there we 
should expect to find a small amount of mortgage indebtedness. 

It is generally conceded, for example, that our Southern States 
have lacked industrial enterprise. Consequently, we find that of 
the families occupying and owning farms in Kentucky but 4 per 
cent have encumbered properties ; in Georgia, Florida, and Ten- 
nessee, 3 per cent ; and in North Carolina, 5 per cent. Turning 
to some of the Northern states, we find the following percent- 
ages : Ohio, 29 per cent; Indiana, 33 per cent; Michigan, 49 
per cent ; and New York, 44 per cent. Likewise, it is generally 
recognized that during the decade covered by the last census, 
there was unusual enterprise and industrial activity in the South- 
ern States, owing to the ingress of Northern energy and capital ; 
yet it was during that period that the increase of debt was no 
per cent in North Carolina, 313 per cent in Tennessee, 262 per 
cent in Georgia, and 559 per cent in Florida. 

Again, during the ten years ending with 1889, mortgage in- 
debtedness increased much faster in the cities than in the coun- 
try ; for the former the total was 217 per cent greater in 1889 
than in 1880, while for the latter it was but 71 per cent greater. 
Yet during this period the cities offered larger industrial oppor- 
tunities than the country, thousands of laborers acquired homes, 
building and loan associations multiplied and flourished, and 
urban wealth most rapidly increased. 

That mortgage indebtedness has also greatly increased in the 
Western states is a fact known to all. In Kansas 60 per cent 
of the taxed acres are under mortgage ; in Iowa, 47 per cent ; 
in Nebraska, 55 per cent; in Missouri, 25 per cent. But wealth 
and social well-being have also multiplied. Probably no farming 
country in the world ever increased in wealth at an equal rate, 
or in so short a time attained those conditions that render 
life attractive and that minister to the intellectual, social, and 
religious wants of man. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 719 

This line of thought has been forcibly summarized in the 
following language : 

The important truth concerning debts is, that the poorer and more purely 
agricultural portions of the country are not those where mortgage indebtedness 
on farms and homes is the greatest. Debts abound where there is wealth and 
industrial opportunity, and because there is industrial opportunity. New York 
State with 6,000,000 inhabitants, Pennsylvania with 5,000,000 and Illinois 
with 4,000,000 have each of them a larger mortgage indebtedness than all the 
Southern States taken together, with a population of 22,000,000 and over. 
The six states in which the indebtedness is above $100,000,000 contain only 
a third of the people of the United States, but their people have borrowed 
more than half the total amount loaned on mortgages. 

This same explanation of the increase of mortgage debt is set 
forth by the commissioner of labor of Minnesota : 

The years 1869, 1870, and 1871 witnessed a great increase of mortgages 
placed on record against acre property. These were years of great farm pros- 
perity, and lands were mortgaged to secure money to improve the same. . . . 
Farm disasters always lead to decreased mortgages on farm lands. . . . The 
wheat crop of 1877 was equal to that of 1875 in the state, although an almost 
total failure in certain counties. In the counties with a failure the growth of 
mortgage debt was checked, but the good prices for wheat and the constantly 
increasing wheat production of Minnesota led to a great increase in mortgage 
debt in the state as a whole. . . . Years of disaster in any given county are fol- 
lowed by decreased relative amounts of mortgages, showing that farm mortgages 
in Minnesota are the results or accompaniments of prosperity and not of disaster. 
********** 

The further question, whether the income of farm land now sub- 
ject to mortgage has been maintained at the point which the borrower 
expected, is obviously of paramount importance. The proximate 
causes of any decline of farm income, other things being equal, 
are lower prices for agricultural produce and crop failure. 

In regard to prices, it is noteworthy that many of the products 
of the farm have in recent years most seriously declined. For 
example, the average farm price of wheat during the four years, 
1 888-1 89 1, was 82 cents per bushel ; while during the following 
four years, 1 892-1 895, the price averaged but 55 cents, a de- 
cline of 33 per cent. That is, to pay off a debt of $1000 during 
the latter period would have required on the average about 600 
bushels more of wheat than during the former. The average 



720 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

aggregate farm value of the wheat crops during each of the four 
years of the first period was $393,000,000, while for each year 
of the latter period it was $249,000,000, a falling off of 36 per 
cent. In 1895 nearly twice as many horses were required to 
pay interest or to discharge the principal of a debt as in 1891. 
Moreover, the average price of middling cotton during the four 
years 1 892-1 895 was 26 per cent less than during the preceding 
decade. The price of sheep and wool averaged fully 30 per cent 
less during 1894- 189 5 than during the ten years preceding. 
Barley sold on the average for 20 per cent less during 1893- 
1895 than during 1 883-1 892. The prices of corn, potatoes, and 
oats during 1895 were less than their average for the decade 
1 88 5- 1 894. Of the principal farm products, cattle, hay, and 
hogs were noteworthy exceptions, averaging higher in price 
during 1892 -189 5 than for a decade. The year 1896 (now 
three-fourths gone) promises a level of prices for farm products 
considerably lower than 1895. 

This decline in the prices of farm products has not been offset 
by any corresponding decrease in the cost of production. The 
four years 1892- 189 5 were not marked by any revolution in 
agricultural methods. There were few farm implements employed 
in 1895 that were not generally in use in 1891; and even if. their 
price during these four years underwent considerable reduction, 
the interval was too brief for implements already in use to be 
replaced to such advantage as to lessen materially the cost of 
production. East-bound freight rates between leading points did 
not appreciably decline. The cost of farm labor also diminished 
but slightly. Taxes for state purposes were steadily maintained, 
tending to increase rather than to diminish. It follows, conse- 
quently, that this fall in the prices of farm products has tightened 
the grip of mortgage debt upon the American farmer. 

Even more destructive than falling prices to the labors of the 
energetic and aspiring husbandman is crop failure. This fact is 
best illustrated by conditions in portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska, 
Kansas, Oklahoma, the Indian Territory, and Texas. In parts of 
Kansas and Nebraska agriculture has been in a marked degree 
subject to all the uncertainties of a capricious climate. As you 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 721 

cross the plains the rainfall steadily decreases, " but no stakes can 
be set to warn the settler that thus far shall he go and no 
farther. . . . Some of the counties in Kansas lying within this 
belt have been populated and depopulated, in a measure, two or 
three times. One or two years of exceptional rainfall bring in 
a fresh throng of settlers to take the place of others who have 
given up the struggle ; they in turn are impoverished by the dry 
years that are sure to follow, and abandon their farms." 

Concerning crop failure in recent years in Kansas, Governor 
Morrill of that state says : 

I think it probably true that land in some parts of our state has declined 
in value fifteen per cent since 1884. The western part of the state is subject to 
droughts. The rainfall there in nearly all seasons is below what is required to 
make a good crop. I know there was a great rush of people to that section of 
the country to take homesteads, and for a time land sold very readily. The 
failure of crops for the past three years has caused a stampede from that 
section, and land is difficult to sell now at any price. 

The disaster thus entailed upon the agricultural interests of the 
drought-stricken portion of the state is reflected in a decrease 
of population. 

In 1890 Kansas had 1,427,096 people. In 1895 the state census found 
only 1,334,668 within her borders. The counties in the eastern part of the 
state, which enjoy a sufficient rainfall for agriculture, exhibited gains, but in 
the western-central and western counties there was an absolute loss of about 
200,000, — a greater number than is contained in the entire state of North 
Dakota. . . . The causes which produced the partial depopulation of the 
western part of Kansas were equally operative in western Nebraska (and in 
North and South Dakota). 

The economic history of wheat production in Minnesota is 
also full of examples illustrating how crop failures act as in- 
come-destroyers, and as promoters of the burden of mortgage 
indebtedness. 

All classes of farmers, however, are not equally injured by 
such unanticipated occurrences. The differences have been clearly 
indicated by the labor commissioner of Minnesota. 

In an old and well-settled and prosperous farming community these dis- 
asters or misfortunes in modern times bring with them no dire results. The 
average farmer has sufficient wealth of his own, available resources of various 



722 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

kinds, or the facilities for credit to carry himself and family through the evil 
days and into the ever-returning periods of good crops, fair prices, and return- 
ing prosperity. This is not the case with new farmers with small resources 
in a new country. . . . They cannot command sufficient credit to carry them 
to the better times, and their farms are sold by mortgage foreclosure. (Con- 
sequently) in a new country . . . farm failures become very numerous after 
every general loss of crops due to any cause and also after every period of 
depreciated prices for farm products. 

With this view of the conditions under which the loans were 
secured, let us turn to a- study of mortgage foreclosures and the 
liquidation of mortgage debts. 

Probably there are no more accurate measures of the burden 
of mortgage indebtedness than the relative frequency of fore- 
closures and the progress made in the liquidation of the debts. 
The data at hand permit the consideration of mortgage fore- 
closures in New Jersey, Illinois, and Minnesota, the liquidation 
of farm mortgages in Michigan, and the relative rates at which 
mortgage debts upon acre tracts and city lots were liquidated 
during the ten years ending with 1889 throughout the various 
states of the Union. 

It is the general impression that the number of failures is 
relatively less in farming than in other gainful pursuits. In New 
Jersey, however, for almost a decade the average yearly number 
of foreclosure executions upon farms somewhat exceeded the 
number of mercantile failures in that state reported by Brad- 
street's. The reluctance with which capital is advanced upon 
farm lands also indicates the unfavorable agricultural conditions 
existing in New Jersey. It is, moreover, reasonable to suppose 
that all of the states whose farm lands declined in value have 
suffered some of the disadvantages of mortgage debt that are 
illustrated by New Jersey. It is of interest to note that in nearly 
all such states the number of mortgages given yearly throughout 
the last decade, upon lands used for farm purposes, did not 
increase, and in some instances actually decreased. In a con- 
siderable number of them, when due allowance is made for the 
number of acre tracts subject to mortgage and held for specula- 
tive purposes within city limits, there was a noticeable decrease 
in the mortgage indebtedness incurred upon lands used for farm 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 723 

purposes. This fact of itself probably indicates that the chances 
of agricultural success, in states whose lands have declined in 
value, have been such as to give little encouragement either to 
the borrower or to the lender of money upon farm lands. In 
Illinois, in 1886 and 1888, the rate of mortgage foreclosures 
upon lots was somewhat less than upon acres. 

In Minnesota, owing mainly to the introduction of diversified 
farming, the farmer was better off in respect to foreclosures 
during 1 892-1 893 than at any previous time in the history of 
the state. Moreover, in 1893 the rate of mortgage foreclosure 
upon acre property used for farm purposes was less than upon 
city lots or acre tracts held for speculative purposes in the 
vicinity of cities. To what extent Minnesota, in regard to mort- 
gage foreclosures, is representative of other trans-Mississippi 
states whose lands are rising in value, it is impossible to say with 
any great certainty. In states like Iowa and Missouri, where both 
soil and climate are well adapted to agriculture, where the farm 
population is possessed of considerable accumulated resources 
and credit, and where a fairly well-diversified system of crop 
production exists, it is fair to infer that mortgage foreclosures 
have not been unusually frequent. But in sections subject to 
prolonged and disastrous droughts and having inhabitants pos- 
sessed of meager resources, such as western Kansas and Nebraska, 
mortgage foreclosures have beyond question registered a high 
degree of agricultural disaster in recent years. 

Upon the liquidation of mortgage indebtedness in Michigan, 
the reports of the state bureau of labor for 1888 and 1893 throw 
some light. The report for the latter year showed a slight de- 
crease in the percentage of farms and of acres mortgaged, in the 
amount of mortgage debt, and in the percentage of debt to the 
assessed value of farms encumbered, with a consequent falling 
off in the annual burden of interest of $471,581. 

With regard to the relative rates at which the liquidation of 
mortgage debts upon acre tracts and city lots proceeded during 
the last decade, tables are submitted on the following page. 

The figures indicate that the rate of mortgage liquidation 
upon acre tracts was 54.89 per cent, and upon lots 47.06 per 



724 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



REAL-ESTATE MORTGAGES MADE IN UNITED STATES, 1880-1889 



Number 



Amount 



Total . 
On acres 
On lots 



9,517,000 
4,747,000 
4,770,000 



Si 2,094,000,000 
4,896,700,000 
7,198,000,000 



Real-Estate Mortgages in Force, 


[ANUARY I, 


189O 




Number 


Amount 


Total 


4,777,000 
2,303,000 
2,474,000 


$6,019,000,000 
2,209,000,000 
3,8lO,OOO,O0O 




On lots 





Liquidation Effected, 1880-1. 



Estimated mortgage debt, January 1, 1890 

Mortgages executed since 


$2,494,000,000 
12,094,000,000 


Total 


$14,588,000,000 
6,019,000,000 






Amount Liquidated • 


$8,569,000,000 



cent. The amount of mortgage debt resting upon acre tracts, 
however, gives one an exaggerated idea of the volume of debt 
carried by the farm lands of the nation. A considerable portion 
of such land is held for speculative purposes in the vicinity of 
cities, and cannot properly be considered as farm land in an in- 
vestigation of the debt under which the agricultural interests of 
the country are laboring. Lands used for farm purposes and oc- 
cupied by their owners were subject to an aggregate incumbrance, 
January 1, 1890, of $1,086,000,000. This debt rested upon 
887,000 farm families, and represented 35.55 per cent of the 
value of the farm lands encumbered. There is, of course, some 
mortgage debt upon farms not occupied by their owners and 
leased to tenants. The volume of such debt, however, is believed 
to be inconsiderable ; and the well-being of a class able to live 
upon the rental of the farms they own need not excite the 
serious concern of the public. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 725 

Again, it should be borne in mind that the mortgage debt in 
force, January 1, 1890, was distributed within each state largely 
according to industrial strength. In such states as Iowa, Kansas, 
and Nebraska, where agriculture is the principal industry, the 
greater part of the mortgage debt rests upon farm lands ; in 
states having great manufacturing interests and large urban de- 
velopment, such as New York and Massachusetts, the debt upon 
homes is greatly in excess of that upon farms. Owned and 
encumbered farms, however, were less heavily mortgaged than 
owned and encumbered homes, the former being mortgaged for 
35-55 P er cent of their value and the latter for 39.77 per cent. 

The increase of farm tenants. The last United States census 
showed a marked increase, not only absolutely but relatively, in 
the number of farm tenants. In 1880, 30.93 per cent of the 
farm families hired their farms; in 1890, 34.17 per cent. Dur- 
ing that decennial period there was in Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois a loss of 22,300 owning farmers and a gain of 18,887 
tenant farmers. In 47 states and territories the number of 
owning farmers increased 274,300, and the number of tenant 
farmers 349,100. 

In order to explain the presence and increase of farm tenancy, 
and to ascertain whether landlord and tenant classes are in proc- 
ess of evolution in the United States, it is necessary to analyze 
several features of tenancy. 

1 . One factor of much influence in making the percentage of 
farm tenants in the United States so large is the industrial con- 
dition of the South. In the South Atlantic states 45 per cent, 
and in the South Central states 48 per cent, of the total number 
of farm families are tenants ; while the percentage in the North 
Atlantic group is 21 ; in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific, 18; 
and in the North Central, 26. The existence of such a large class 
of tenant farmers in the Southern states cannot, however, in the 
light of industrial history be held to be an unfavorable symptom. 
Tenancy in these states simply marks the step from an industrial 
system based upon slavery to one of freedom. 

2. Especially significant in connection with the increase from 
1880 to 1890 in the percentage of farm tenants is the fact that 



726 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

during those ten years 5,246,613 immigrants, or one-third of our 
total immigration from 1820 to 1890, came to our shores. The 
average per capita wealth which this great invading army of 
unskilled workers brought with them was considerably less than 
$100. Their meager resources rendered it inevitable that so far 
as they found a place as agriculturists in our industrial organism, 
they should appear as farm laborers and tenants rather than as 
farm owners. The natural increase of our native and foreign- 
born population, at the rate of between a million and a million 
and a half a year during the last decade, has also tended to swell 
the number of farm tenants. Instances are exceptional where 
parents with several children in the family are able to provide each 
with a farm. In large families some of those who elect farming as 
a pursuit must therefore start either as hired hands or as farm ten- 
ants. In connection with the increase of population, the exhaustion 
of the desirable portion of the public domain and the prosperity 
of farm owners are pertinent facts. When government land was 
more abundant, there was but one step from the condition of a hired 
laborer to farm ownership. Now it is necessary first to become 
a tenant ; and but for the fact that some farm owners have pros- 
pered sufficiently to be able to rent their farms, hired laborers de- 
sirous of rising to tenancy would have no industrial opportunity. 
3 . The increase in the relative number of farm tenants in some 
states is the result of agricultural disaster. President Fairchild 
of Kansas Agricultural College writes me as follows : 

There is always a considerable body of young men who first rent farms and 
afterward come to own them. In this state, however, some peculiar conditions 
have increased quite beyond the normal the number of tenants. The whole 
western third of the state was settled by a boom in farm lands. Multitudes of 
settlers took claims without means of their own, expecting to pay for the land 
from the immediate profits of farming. Multitudes of them mortgaged the land 
for improvements, and multitudes more expended the proceeds of mortgages 
in living. When it was found that the proceeds of farming in that part of the 
state were very uncertain, at best, the mortgages became due. And in many 
instances those who had been nominally owners remained upon the farms as 
tenants after foreclosure. These are but the natural effects in reaction from a 
tremendous boom. 

Another reason for apparent increase of tenants is found in the general 
hesitation to accept mortgages following immediately after the panic; which 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 727 

panic, you will remember, began in Kansas real estate long before it was felt 
in the general commercial world. Under ordinary circumstances a thrifty 
young man can buy a farm with a very small cash payment. For the past 
seven, years, with property declining, neither the buyer nor the owner will 
take the risks of such a trade. 

With these various influences working for the development of 
a tenant class, few questions are of greater interest to the student 
of social relations than the ultimate destiny of the increasing 
number of farm tenants. Are they doomed to remain always in 
a state of relative industrial dependence, or will economic condi- 
tions permit them to rise to a higher industrial level ? 

Two considerations indicate that it is possible for farm tenants 
to become landowners. In the first place, the resistance to be 
overcome in taking such a step is not very much greater than 
that encountered by the settlers who took up land on the public 
domain under the homestead laws. The necessary outlay of the 
early settler, in addition to the cost of transporting himself and 
his family to the West and of living during the year or perhaps 
two years which intervened before a regular crop could be raised, 
has been estimated at $1000. The same amount of money will 
enable its possessor at the present time to become the owner of 
a farm fairly well improved in either the eastern or the western 
division of the Central States. Such a farm owner would enjoy 
better markets, and would not have to endure the long years of 
isolation, involving social, educational, and religious deprivation, 
which it was the lot of the early settler to undergo. It is true, 
of course, that prices for the products of the farm have very 
much declined in recent years ; but it is also true that farm land 
in many of the states referred to above can be had at prices 25 
to 50 per cent lower than fifteen years ago. 

In the second place, the percentage of farm tenants in the 
Northern states is frequently greatest where the soil is most 
fertile and the conditions most favorable to agricultural prosperity, 
and is often smallest where nature most scantily rewards the 
labors of the agriculturist. Thus, in Illinois 37 per cent of the 
farm families hire their farms ; in Iowa, 29 per cent ; and in 
Missouri, 31 per cent. In Massachusetts, however, but 15 per 



728 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

cent of farm families are tenants ; in Maine, 7 per cent ; in 
Connecticut, 17 per cent; and in New Hampshire, 10 per cent. 
In the single state of Illinois there are nearly four times as many 
farm tenants as in all New England. In Minnesota the best 
and most prosperous counties show the largest actual and relative 
number of tenants. In the counties with the smallest ratio of 
mortgage foreclosures, the percentage of tenants is greatest ; and 
relatively few tenants are found in counties where the ratio of 
mortgage foreclosures is large. Probably no one would deny that 
the conditions are more favorable to agricultural success in the 
North Central than in the North Atlantic states. Yet in ten 
years, 1 880-1 890, the number of farms cultivated by others 
than their owners increased 23 per cent in the former and 
but 9 per cent in the latter. During the same decade the net 
gain in the number of rented farms in the New England States 
was but 58, and in each of four of these states the number 
was less at the end than at the beginning of the period. The 
obvious explanation of this condition of affairs is that tenants 
naturally drift to the best farming sections, for it is in the best 
sections that farmers become prosperous enough to retire and 
lease their farms. The important fact to which attention is here 
directed is, then, that farm tenants are most numerous where the 
conditions are most favorable to their becoming farm owners. 

Not only is it possible for tenants to rise to farm ownership, 
but there is positive evidence that this is just what is taking 
place at the present time. For example, in Minnesota one out 
of every nine farm tenants rises to ownership each year, and one 
out of every four of the most efficient. That is, of the 17,982 
tenants in Minnesota, more than 2000 annually rise to owner- 
ship. Moreover, 94 per cent of those who have lost farms by 
mortgage foreclosures in that state have been able in a short time 
to regain their earlier condition as farm owners. In Minnesota, 
therefore, V The growth of tenancy ... is part of a movement 
lifting a large number of people by slow and sure stages from 
small beginnings to independence on the farm." Upon this 
subject President Beardshear of Iowa Agricultural College writes 
me as follows : 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 729 

I think there is quite a tendency among renters of Iowa farms to become 
owners of farms in the near future. Out of four renters under my supervision 
upon an Iowa farm in ten years, three of them became independent and pur- 
chased farms for themselves. Iowa Agricultural College has leased quite a 
number of thousands of acres of land in the last twenty years with condition 
that they could be purchased at a nominal sum at the expiration of a certain 
number of years. A vast majority of these renters have purchased the land at 
the expiration of the leases. 

The success with which tenants struggle for farm ownership 
may be roughly measured by comparison with the success of 
heirs in retaining ownership. Nearly every country community 
is rich with examples of individuals who have lost the farms 
they inherited. In the farm community where the writer once 
lived and with which he has been familiar all his life, the farms 
which descended to heirs have in the great majority of cases for 
one cause or another been transferred to new owners. Often the 
explanation is found in thriftless or bad habits. Frequently, 
however, embarkation in some line of business other than farm- 
ing is responsible. With the record of this class of owners the 
industrial career of farm tenants compares favorably. While the 
statement cannot be made upon statistical authority, the percent- 
age of farm tenants who fail of property ownership is probably 
not much greater than the proportion of financial wrecks among 
those who inherit farms. If this be admitted, it follows that the 
farm tenant is relatively not unduly handicapped in the race of life. 

In conclusion, the subject of farm tenancy suggests this line 
of thought : 

One cause that promoted the downfall of the English yeomen 
was the fact that land was, more than any other form of property 
of the time, a source of income, as well as of power and influ- 
ence, to its possessor. In marked contrast with that condition 
of affairs is the fact that in modern society farm lands have to a 
great extent been displaced by other means of securing income, 
power, and social prestige. " Investments in lands which are valu- 
able for agriculture only, are not regarded with favor by capitalists. 
Better use for their money is found elsewhere. 

•' The banker, merchant, manufacturer, and capitalist have be- 
come wealthier than the landowner. The moneyed classes have 



730 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

supplanted the landed classes in importance. The banker million- 
aire is greater and more powerful than the ducal landlord. Land, 
the old source of centralized wealth, inordinate power, caste privi- 
leges, and hereditary rights, no longer maintains its preeminent 
importance." 

These facts, in connection with the question we are consider- 
ing, are full of significance. Indicating an absence of adequate 
motive for the wealthy classes to seek landed investments, they 
show that one of the most potent influences in promoting the 
development of landlordism is absent in the United States. 

Mr. George K. Holmes, one of the special agents in charge 
of the volume of the Eleventh Census on real-estate mortgages, 
in a personal letter of September 26, 1 896, says : 

I have been unable to find in the observation and experience of hundreds 
of census agents, who did work in all parts of the United States in collecting 
statistics of mortgages, thai capitalists are seeking investments in farms, ex- 
cept in so far as they lend money to farmers on farm-mortgage securities. 
These lenders do not want the farms. 

It is true that there is a tendency among the fashionable and 
wealthy classes in the cities to desire land for summer residences. 
It is unlikely, however, that this movement will ever seriously 
encroach upon the cultivated lands of the United States. Not 
only are large estates seldom in demand for such purposes, but, 
in general, land occupied by the summer residences of the rich 
is in the neighborhood of the ocean, the mountains, or the Great 
Lakes, and is not suitable for agricultural purposes. 



V. FOUR REMEDIES FOR THE AGRICULTURAL 
DEPRESSION CONSIDERED 

Before discussing several remedies proposed in the interest of 
the farmer, certain unfavorable conditions, which make it impos- 
sible to adjust supply to demand so as to render the business of 
the farmer continuously profitable, deserve consideration. 

1. Foremost among these conditions is the vastly increased 
supply of farm products which, through the efficiency of modern 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 731 

methods, are put upon the market. Among the factors chiefly 
instrumental in effecting this result are improvements in trans- 
portation and communication. By rendering the world's markets 
accessible to the products of the most remote corners of the earth, 
not only have they increased the forthcoming supply of such 
staples as breadstuffs and meats, but, by enlarging the variety of 
food products, they have contributed still further to the abundance 
of the food supply. Formerly, " the food supply came only from 
the neighborhood, and was diversified only by the seasons. Now 
it is replenished from every zone. . . . The grocery store of 
Chicago and that of New Orleans, the market-places of London 
and those of Calcutta might change places in a night, without 
revealing any striking novelty to their patrons the next morning." 
In the presence of a harvest all the while ripening somewhere 
round the globe, a large surplus or a crop of unusual size in 
any country exerts a depressing influence upon the price level 
of the entire world. 

Science and invention have also increased the food supply by 
utilizing what were formerly waste products. For example : 

Within a few years the city of Chicago produced more tons of artificial butter 
than any state of the Union could show of the genuine article. Filled cheese 
has destroyed the foreign market, which was formerly so good, for the Ameri- 
can dairy product, and so reduced the price of the unadulterated article as to 
make its manufacture quite unprofitable. The canning and cold storage of prod- 
ucts which were until within a very recent period so perishable as to enter into 
the consumption only during brief periods of each year, and over limited areas, 
have transformed them into considerable ingredients of the world's supply of 
staple necessaries. Vegetables, fruits, and fish have thus come into direct com- 
petition with grains and meats, thereby still further increasing the disparity 
between the demand and supply of agricultural foods. In this way the unused 
surplus of agricultural products and their equivalents is year by year swelled, 
to the manifest disadvantage of the producer, and to the apparent enhancement 
of the world's productive capacity. 

Nor is it probable that the increase in the supply of food 
products has yet reached its limit. 

A scientific survey of the food-producing capacity of the earth, even with 
little, if any, enhancement of the present supply of labor, makes it evident 
that the present supply might be largely increased, possibly doubled, within 
the scope of existing lives. 



732 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

2. Concurrently with an increase in the supply of the products 
of the field, the progress of invention has tended in certain re- 
spects to curtail demand for them. Such animal products as tallow 
and grease, for example, have been largely displaced for lighting 
purposes by the mineral products, petroleum and coal. Red dye, 
once obtained from a vegetable, is now derived from the prod- 
uct of a mineral. Wood first gave way to coal for purposes of 
combustion, and then to iron and steel as materials for construc- 
tion. The utilization of cotton-seed oil in the production of lard 
and its substitution for tallow and grease in the manufacture 
of soap have unfavorably affected the prices of hogs and cattle. 
Cocoa oil has also come to be largely employed in making soap ; 
and the large importation of this oil is at once the measure of 
the popularity of the soaps into which it enters and of its own 
depressing influence upon the prices of cattle and hogs, the by- 
products of which it displaces. One of the most striking examples, 
however, is the ^substitution of electricity for horses as the motive 
power in the street-railway service, thereby diminishing not only 
the value of horses, but also that of all kinds of feed and forage. 

It has been estimated that electric lines have already displaced no less than 
275,000 horses. ... At a moderate computation this number of horses would 
require about 125,000 bushels of corn or oats a day. A decrease of 125,000 
bushels a day is equal to 45,000,000 bushels a year, enough to appreciably 
affect the prices of those grains. 

The bicycle has exerted a similar influence. Its worst effects 
have probably appeared in the horse and carriage trades, and 
allied businesses. " The practice of horseback riding is nearly 
extinct, and saddle horses are a drug in the market." 

3. The dependence of agricultural profits upon the uncer- 
tainty of the weather is another of the unfavorable conditions 
with which the farmer must contend. With the disastrous con- 
sequences of crop failure we are already familiar. But nature 
frequently, though not as disastrously, interferes with the farmer's 
prospects by rewarding his labors with an over-abundant harvest. 
The corn crop of 1885, for example, though only slightly 
greater in area than that of 1887, was nearly 500,000,000 
bushels greater in yield, while the aggregate money value was 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 733 

$20,000,000 less. Again, a large increase of acreage, accompanied 
by favorable weather for the growth of the crop, sometimes results 
in such an enormous yield as to deluge the market and kill the 
price. Thus, in 1889 favorable weather, in connection with an 
acreage 6,600,000 greater than in the following year, resulted in 
an unprecedented crop of some 650,000,000 more bushels than 
in 1890, but so flooded the market as to net the producers 
$150,000,000 less. Further, for each of the four years preced- 
ing 1889 the acreage of oats was less than for that year, and the 
yield also was considerably less ; but the total value of the crop 
was invariably greater. The acreage of cotton in 1 891-1892 was 
2.3 per cent less than in the preceding year, the yield 379,800 
bales greater, and the total money value of the crop $37,000,000 
less. The acreage in 1893- 1894 was only slightly in excess of 
that of 1 892-1 893, yet the yield was 849,500 bales greater, 
while the aggregate value to the producer was $4,143,000 less. 

4. The extent to which agriculture is carried on in modern 
industrial society, with the purpose of supplying the market, fre- 
quently results in production ill adjusted to existing conditions. 
The farmer expects to consume only a small part of the products 
of his labor, and to exchange the remainder for articles suited to 
his wants. Each agricultural producer, proceeding without an 
intelligent knowledge of what his fellows are doing, endeavors 
to create a maximum product. The result is that the wealth- 
producing energies of the farmer are not properly distributed, 
and the products of his labor are not adjusted in the proper 
proportion to the wants of society. Consequently, the producers 
of such food products as exist in relative over-abundance are 
injured in the process of exchange ' by receiving less than an 
economic equivalent for the product of their toil. 

Four of the unfavorable conditions under which the business 
of the farmer is conducted have now been considered. To the 
extent that population multiplies under the stimulus of a bounti- 
ful food supply, the increasing abundance of farm products tends 
to correct itself. Any measure capable of promoting the per 
capita consuming power of the masses or of diverting energy 
now expended in food production to some more profitable field 



734 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of employment would afford some relief. The curtailment of 
production through the development of a taste in the community 
for other than productive employment would also have a favora- 
ble influence. The unfriendly influence of climate can to a small 
extent be overcome by irrigation, or by the adoption of a system 
of agriculture better suited to climatic environment. By increas- 
ing the diffusion of information, so that the farmer may expend 
his energy with a better knowledge of what his fellows are doing, 
the evils of disproportionate production may be slightly dimin- 
ished. But here the prospect of amelioration ends. Beyond what 
is involved in the above suggestions, it is probable that no remedy, 
legislative or other, can render the influence of these conditions 
less unfavorable to profitable crop-production. They are for the 
most part unalterable, and no discussion of any remedy proposed 
in the farmer's interest can proceed intelligently without holding 
them constantly in mind. They therefore mark the limit within 
which statesmen and others interested in the welfare of the 
farmer should confine their efforts. The recognition of such limi- 
tations may dampen the zeal of social enthusiasts ; but, on the 
other hand, it will discourage them from advocating fanciful and 
impracticable schemes, and will save society from the economic 
loss arising from the unstable business conditions which these 
schemes create. 

Proceeding now to the remedies that have been proposed for 
the difficulties of the agricultural class, we shall consider only 
four : namely, the free coinage of silver, a general property tax, 
an export bounty on agricultural staples, and a greater develop- 
ment of thrift among the farmers. 

The free coinage of silver and the farmer. That the gen- 
eral range of prices for the products of the farm has greatly 
declined since 1873, no one will deny. There are those who, 
overlooking the influence of the forces to which attention has 
just been called, believe that the cause of this fall is the ap- 
preciation of gold. Whether or not gold has really appreciated 
(that is, become dearer in terms of commodities because of its 
scarcity) is beyond the scope of the present inquiry. Assuming 
that it has, let us consider to what extent changes in the prices 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 735 

of farm products during the past twenty-three years can be satis- 
factorily explained as a result of such appreciation. 

The index numbers representing the weighted average price 
in gold of nine farm products — barley, corn, cotton, hemp, meats, 
oats, rye, tobacco, wheat — from 1873 to 1891 are shown in the 
following table : 

1873 106 1883 102 

1874 123.5 1884 100.8 

1875 1 1 6.8 1885 87.9 

1876 91.9 1886 87.5 

1877 96.5 1887 89.6 

1878 89.7 1888 93.6 

1879 91. 1 1889 86.5 

1880 102.9 1890 93.7 

1881 117. 1 1891 98.4 



1882 



Even a casual survey of these figures shows the utter futility of 
attributing the movement of farm prices to an appreciation of 
the monetary standard. Assuming that the lower level of 1891 
as compared with 1873 is due to appreciation, it is clear that the 
higher levels of 1874, 1875, 1880, 188 1, and 1882 cannot be 
thus explained. Still less adequate is the increasing value of the 
monetary standard to account for the fluctuations in price of any 
one farm commodity. Further, the index numbers indicate that 
the prices of tobacco, rye, meat, and corn were higher in 1891 
than in 1890, while the prices of barley, cotton, and oats were 
lower. In the presence of these facts, the theory that the change 
in the prices of farm products finds any adequate explanation 
in the increasing value of gold breaks down hopelessly. 

During the years since 1891 there has occurred from time to 
time a marked fall in the prices of farm products. Are we to 
believe that simultaneously in each instance there took place an 
increase in the value of gold ? The farm price per bushel of the 
corn crop of 1895, for example, was 30 per cent less than the 
average annual price for the ten years preceding. Is the appre- 
ciation of gold or a crop 25 per cent greater than the annual 
average, for the preceding decade the more plausible explanation ? 
Was it the appreciation of gold that made the price of potatoes 



736 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

so low in 1895, or was it a crop which exceeded by nearly 
90,000,000 bushels that of any year, with the single exception of 
1 89 1, during three decades? The average farm price of wheat 
for the three years ending with 1894 was about 30 per cent 
less than for the three years ending with 1891. Is the gold 
standard or an increase of 236,000,000 bushels in the annual 
average of the world's supply the more reasonable explanation ? 
Obviously, the fall of prices disclosed by such facts cannot be 
satisfactorily explained by an increase in the value of gold. 

These downward movements in the prices of farm products 
were severe shocks to agricultural prosperity because they were 
sudden and unexpected. Compared with the gradual fall of prices 
that has occurred since 1873, they were relatively far more dis- 
astrous to farm interests. A rainfall of four inches distributed 
throughout twenty-four hours may do little or no damage ; but the 
same precipitation within an hour carries in its wake disaster. 
What is to be said, then, of the assertion that, owing to a 
steady fall of prices, there has been no agricultural prosperity 
since 1873 ? The most obvious reply is that the statement, in 
this unqualified form, does not agree with the facts. During the 
years 1 879-1 884 there was unusual agricultural prosperity, as a 
comparison of agricultural with general prices will clearly show. 
A similar comparison shows that 1 888-1 892 were years when 
farmers were enjoying fair times. This does not mean, of course, 
that there was an absence of grumbling, or that no one complained 
of hard times during either of these periods. Judged by this test, 
indeed, there has never been a time in our country's history when 
agricultural distress was not the rule and prosperity the exception. 

It is most certainly a sudden rather than a steady fall of prices 
that entails disaster upon the farmer. As Professor J. B. Clark 
puts it : 

How does a slow and steady appreciation of any metallic currency affect the 
relations of business classes ? Does it rob borrowers and enrich lenders ? Does 
it favor the consumers by giving low prices and hurt producers in the same de- 
gree ? Does it tax enterprise and paralyze the nerves of business ? The answer 
is an emphatic No. Steadiness in the rate of appreciation of money is the sal- 
vation of business. ... It is changes in the rate of inflation or of contraction 
that produce marked and damaging effects at the critical points of business life. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 737 

Whether or not this view be accepted as sound, it will be well 
to bear in mind that fully 75 per cent of the mortgage debt in 
force January 1, 1890, was incurred within five years, and but 
8.02 per cent before 1880. Consequently, at any given time 
the increased burden from outstanding indebtedness because of 
the gold standard cannot be very considerable. These facts also 
render untenable the position of those who hold the gold stand- 
ard accountable in part for the frequency and severity of panics 
and commercial depressions. 

If the appreciation of gold is responsible for the present' low 
ebb of agricultural prosperity, we should naturally expect the 
farmers of Canada, separated from those of the United States 
only by an imaginary line, to share in that opinion. That they 
feel quite keenly the stress of the present era of low prices does 
not admit of doubt ; yet it is perfectly clear that they do not 
find the cause of their difficulties in the gold standard. A plat- 
form adopted at London, Ontario, September 22, 1891, by the 
Patrons of Industry of that province, contains declarations upon 
the public lands, civil-service reform, economy in the administra- 
tion of the government, railways, etc., but has not a word to say 
about the currency. The editor of the Farmer 's Advocate and 
Home Magazine of London, Ontario, wrote me May 2, 1896: 

There has been no demand here for more currency, and beyond an article 
or so in the Advocate and some correspondence and editorial discussion in 
the Globe newspaper of Toronto, very little is said about bimetallism ; it is not 
a live subject here at all. 

John W. Coppinger, United States Consul at Toronto, wrote 
on April 2, 1896 : " There is no agitation here concerning the 
finances ; people seem to be satisfied with their banking and cur- 
rency system." Professor Goldwin Smith, in a personal letter of 
May 20, 1896, said: "No man of sense can imagine anything 
but mischief could be done by a derangement of the currency." 
Certainly the contrast between the farmers of the United States 
and those of Canada in their views upon the subject of currency 
could hardly be more striking. And the contrast is emphasized 
when we consider that " the difficulties surrounding agriculture 
are precisely the same in Canada as they are in the United 



738 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

States " ; and that the per capita circulation there is less than 
half what it is here. 

Having considered the most serious criticism urged against the 
gold standard, let us inquire how a law providing for the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to i would affect 
the interests of the farmer. That the immediate effect would be a 
precipitate passage to a silver standard hardly admits of a doubt. 
It is not a matter for surprise that, with nothing to check the 
force of the fall, the proposal to drop industrial interests abruptly 
to a silver standard should destroy the spirit of confidence, and 
cause the business world to look forward with dismay and terror 
to the readjustment of values which would follow. That the tran- 
sition to this cheaper monetary standard would be accompanied 
by rising prices in terms of silver is a proposition from which no 
one is likely to dissent. Let us examine the effect of this move- 
ment by comparing the cases of two farmers, A and B. We will 
suppose each to have laid by a surplus of $1500 in cash five 
years ago, and that A invested that amount in farm land, while 
B loaned a like sum to an enterprising neighbor. Any proposal 
that would involve depriving A of 25 per cent or more of his 
real estate would be promptly denounced as dishonorable. It is 
difficult to see how a proposition which involves depriving B of 
a portion of his claim upon dollars can stand ethically upon any 
higher level. The force of the comparison is strengthened if the 
farmer who invested his money in realty selected farm land or 
city property that has since increased in value. On what ground, 
therefore, does the plea of social necessity select as its victim the 
man who has a claim upon dollars in preference to the one who 
has a claim upon realty ? Moreover, 72 per cent of farm-owning 
families own subject to no mortgage incumbrance, and of the 
remainder by far the greater number are able to pay their debts. 
Judged by immediate results, then, what is to be said of a meas- 
ure that would disturb debit and credit relationships throughout 
industrial society for the benefit of the few ? 

But perhaps the free coinage of silver would usher in an era 
of prosperity such as would justify the immediate losses which 
it would inflict upon individuals and society. On the contrary, 



• AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 739 

this is very improbable. The rise in prices would stop after the 
transition to the new standard was an accomplished fact. It is prob- 
able, therefore, that, after industry had experienced a cycle of abnor- 
mal activity, the debtor class would be larger and more heavily 
involved than at present ; and, with few exceptions, the arguments 
now advanced in behalf of the free coinage of silver would apply 
with equal force in support of an irredeemable paper currency. 

Supposing this danger to be escaped, what peculiar virtues does 
silver possess which entitle it to preference over gold as a mone- 
tary standard ? The advocates of free coinage assert that since 
1873 silver has maintained a more constant purchasing power 
over farm products than gold ; and in proof of this proposition 
usually cite the downward movement of the price of silver in 
company with the prices of cotton and wheat. Unfortunately for 
this theory, examples of a contradictory character are quite as 
numerous. During the four years ending with 1895, 50 per cent 
more silver was required to buy 100 bushels of corn than during 
the four years ending with 1876; while 75 per cent more was 
needed to buy 100 pounds of hogs. During the four years end- 
ing with 1895, 75 per cent more silver was necessary to buy 
100 pounds of cattle than during the four years ending with 
1880; and 50 per cent more to buy 100 pounds of tobacco or 
a ton of timothy hay. Evidently the statement that silver pos- 
sesses constant purchasing power with reference to farm products 
is an unwarranted generalization. It is true that the price of 
silver and the general average of prices for the principal products 
of the farm have both declined since 1873; but it is also true 
that a comparison of the four years ending in 1876 with the four 
years ending in 1895 shows the former to have declined about 
twice as much as the latter. The power to command the same 
quantity of farm commodities from time to time is therefore no 
more an attribute of silver than it is of gold. Furthermore, 
were it true that silver has been superior to gold in this respect 
during the past quarter of a century, what assurance is there that 
it would continue to be so during the next twenty-five years ? 

Lastly, would silver be a steadily depreciating standard ? This is 
a difficult question to answer definitely. Admitting a depreciating 



740 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

standard of value to be desirable from the point of view of the 
farmer, it is consequently by no means certain that its advan- 
tages can be realized by the free coinage of silver. Moreover, in 
view of the analysis offered above of the appreciation of gold, 
what the farmer might hope to gain from a currency based upon 
a depreciating money metal is at best of doubtful importance. 

This, then, is our principal conclusion : The independent, free, 
and unlimited coinage of silver by the United States at the ratio 
of 1 6 to i will not promote the prosperity of the American farmer. 
Passing to a silver standard will only temporarily lighten the bur- 
den of mortgage debt resting upon farms. Those farmers whose 
debts are payable in gold would not even experience temporary 
relief. During the transition to the new standard, moreover, de- 
linquent debtors would be more or less seriously embarrassed by 
the disposition of their creditors to enforce immediate payment. 
The rise of prices, by increasing the cost of living, would un- 
doubtedly curtail for many years the consuming power of the 
wage-receiving class, and thereby lessen somewhat the demand 
for the products of the farm. That higher prices for his prod- 
ucts, in terms of a cheaper monetary standard, can enable the 
farmer in the long run to command more of the material com- 
forts of life than he would enjoy under the present standard is 
a proposition difficult to understand. Violent fluctuations in prices 
under a silver standard, whether due to over-production, commer- 
cial depressions, or any other cause, would probably be no less 
frequent, and the losses thereby inflicted upon agricultural indus- 
try no less disastrous than at present. Steadiness of purchasing 
power is one of the marks of a sound monetary system, and 
there is no reason to believe that a currency based upon silver 
is superior for this purpose to one based upon gold. 

An export bounty upon agricultural staples. Whatever ac- 
quaintance the public may have with this proposition is due very 
largely to the energy, enthusiasm, and time devoted to its advo- 
cacy by one man, Mr. David Lubin of Sacramento, California. 
According to Mr. Lubin, our protective tariff system is mainly 
responsible for the economic difficulties of the American farmer. 
The producer of agricultural staples, he contends, receives 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 741 

free-trade prices for what he sells, but for what he buys is com- 
pelled to pay prices enhanced by a protective tariff. For exam- 
ple, Mr. Lubin has said : " The producers of agricultural staples 
under the present system must foot the entire cost of protection, 
which, at a conservative estimate, must foot up to $1,000,000,000 
a year." The object, then, of a system of bounties upon exports 
of agricultural staples, Mr. Lubin tells us, is to restore to the 
farmer that of which protection unjustly deprives him. 

The determination of the truth or falsity of Mr. Lubin 's state- 
ment as to the effect of the tariff on the farmer does not con- 
cern our present purpose. Admitting it to be correct, however, 
what is to be said of his remedy ? Were it to accomplish all 
that Mr. Lubin claims, it would simply restore to the farmer 
$1,000,000,000 of which he is annually deprived by protection. 
When this has been done, who is the gainer by the transaction ? 
To ask the question is to answer it. Mr. Lubin's argument 
resolves itself into this : society is to bear the expense of the 
administrative machinery necessary to a process by which one 
class collects money from another only in turn to pay it back. It 
is clear, therefore, that whether an export bounty upon agricul- 
tural staples be wise or foolish, the argument used by Mr. Lubin 
in its support may be dismissed without further comment. 

It is worth while, however, to consider the proposition itself, 
not only from the farmer's point of view, but also in its political 
and financial aspects, and in reference to its bearing upon eco- 
nomic and social progress and upon the wisest adjustment of 
the wealth-producing energy of the nation. 

The manner in which an export bounty is expected to benefit 
the farmer is as follows : the bounty is to be paid directly to 
the exporters of farm products ; competition among the exporters 
will raise the price of the quantity exported to the extent of 
the bounty ; the quantity bought to supply the home market 
will command the same price; consequently, the value of the 
entire product will be artificially enhanced, and the profits of 
the farmer correspondingly increased. 

It is a serious question, however, whether this can be accom- 
plished without so stimulating production as to defeat the avowed 



742 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

object. The experience of European governments with bounties 
upon the exportation of beet sugar clearly indicates the proba- 
bility of such a result. The insidious origin of this policy in 
Germany is an interesting episode in economic history. Other 
nations of Europe, such as France, partly to keep their own 
sugar producers from being at a competitive disadvantage and 
partly through national jealousy, inaugurated a similar policy, 
until most of the nations of the Continent have vied with each 
other in favoring the sugar industry. The result has been an 
enormous increase in the beet-sugar product, from 2,223,000 tons 
in 1885-1886 to 4,975,000 in 1894-1895, accompanied by such 
a reduction in price that the industry is seriously depressed. Pro- 
ducers complain that the prices received do not cover the cost of 
production, and it has even been proposed to establish a sugar 
bank to relieve distressed refiners and beet-root growers. In 
addition to the loss sustained by the producer, the bounty system 
upon sugar costs the taxpayers of Europe about $25,000,000 per 
annum. Consequently, as a reward for this expenditure of the 
public treasure, the sugar producers of Europe have been led to 
do business at a loss, while the other nations of the world have 
had the benefit of cheap sugar. In addition to the economic evils 
which the policy entails, the fact that one nation cannot abandon 
it independently of the others, without leaving its own producers 
at a competitive disadvantage, is a matter that should not be 
overlooked. The overthrow of the system is thus subject to all 
the delay and uncertainties of international agreement. This 
experience of European nations certainly indicates that a policy 
of export bounties upon agricultural staples in the United States 
would stimulate production in our own country ; but it also indi- 
cates that other food-exporting nations would be led to adopt a 
similar policy and that in consequence no advantage would accrue 
to the American farmer. 

As regards cotton, it is almost certain that an export bounty 
would not permanently enhance the price. The proof of this 
proposition lies in the fact that the United States is the most 
important single factor in producing the world's cotton supply. 
Her annual product is 50 per cent of that of the entire world. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 743 

Of England's cotton importations, 1 890-1 893 inclusive, 76 
per cent came from the United States ; and during the same 
period 69 per cent of all importations into Europe had the 
same origin. These facts not only reflect the extent to which the 
world is dependent upon the United States for its cotton supply, 
but also indicate that the low prices of recent years are to be 
attributed to the enormous scale upon which she has been 
engaged in the production of this commodity. The cotton famine 
during the Civil War, when production in the United States was 
largely suspended, conclusively shows that the size of the American 
crop is the principal factor in determining the price. In 1864 
cotton sold for $1 a pound ; but after the war planting was 
resumed, and the European supply increased to such an extent 
that stocks began to accumulate in the ports, and prices declined 
with the annually increasing crop in this country. 

The plea cannot be made that an export bounty is necessary 
to give us a commercial advantage over competitors in the growth 
of cotton, for we are already easily supreme in this regard. 
Moreover, the enhancement of the price of cotton by means of 
an export bounty will not increase the world's demand to the 
extent of a single pound, save as it cheapens the price. Its only 
influence will be to augment the production of a commodity 
of which there is already too great an abundance, to depress its 
price still further, and to defeat th£ very object for which the 
bounty is proposed. It is even probable that, with the world's 
markets overstocked and the home market dull, because of the 
enormous crops in the United States, those engaged in the export 
trade would underbid each other in a struggle for its control, 
and the bounty would thus be handed over as a gift to foreign 
buyers of cotton. From the point of view of European importers, 
manufacturers, and consumers of cotton, such a policy will doubt- 
less be regarded with unconcealed favor ; but from the standpoint 
of an American the policy of expending the public treasure in 
the interest of a class of producers, only to leave them in no 
better plight than they were and to furnish the other nations of 
the world with a raw material at less than its normal price, can 
hardly be regarded with favor. 



744 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

What has been said concerning cotton also applies very largely 
to corn. To even a greater extent than in the case of cotton, the 
volume of the American crop fixes the price. As to competition 
with other countries, there is none worthy of serious consideration. 
Less than 4 per cent of the yearly crop of corn is exported, 
while something like 80 per cent is yearly consumed in the very 
county where it is grown. The price is, consequently, dependent 
not only upon the American supply but also chiefly upon *the 
American demand. Furthermore, the export demand for corn is 
not increasing. Notwithstanding special efforts made to introduce 
corn in various forms as a food product among European peoples, 
the average annual exports for the ten years preceding 1895 were 
less by 7,400,000 bushels than for the ten years preceding 1885. 
During these two decades the greatest export movements have 
occurred as frequently in years of moderate as in years of 
exceptionally large crops. Under such circumstances, in the com- 
petition among exporters to supply the foreign demand, an ex- 
port bounty upon corn would be quite as likely to go to the 
foreign consumer as to the American producer. Such a result is 
indicated by the experience of Nebraska farmers in 1884, 1886, 
and 1890. In those years railway rates upon corn from points 
in Nebraska were reduced in deference to the demands of 
farmers, with the effect, however, not of increasing the price 
to the producer, but of lowering it to the consumer. Even if 
exporters were induced by the bounty to offer a higher price for 
the supply of the export trade, that trade seems relatively too 
insignificant to affect materially the farm price of corn in the 
United States. Assuming that the price might be momentarily 
enhanced by the bounty, the mere fact that the area devoted 
to corn cultivation is capable of indefinite extension leaves little 
reason to suppose that such an advance would be permanent. 

The cases of hay and oats are in nearly all particulars anal- 
ogous to that of corn. An analysis of the probable effect of 
an export bounty upon wheat and meats, also, would lead to 
similar conclusions. 

From the political point of view, a system of bounties on the 
exportation of agricultural staples is clearly impracticable in the 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 745 

United States. Even if such a scheme were once in operation, 
there would be no hope of its permanence. It would be de- 
nounced as embodying class legislation. Many farmers, disap- 
pointed at the small benefits accruing to them from the measure, 
would give it but indifferent support. If it raised prices the 
hostility of the non-agricultural portion of the population would 
be aroused against it. The short life of the sugar-bounty clause 
of the McKinley tariff act of 1890 illustrates how such measures 
fare under a popular government. Under a despotism a policy 
of bounties on exports might be feasible ; but with a government 
that so quickly reflects a change in public sentiment as our own, 
there would be no assurance that such a measure would endure 
for any considerable length of time. « 

Nor does the policy we are considering present a more favor- 
able aspect from the financial point of view. Under existing 
circumstances, when the national revenue is inadequate to meet 
the needs of the government, the inauguration of a bounty policy 
would seriously embarrass the treasury and necessitate a recon- 
struction of our whole fiscal system. To make good the increased 
deficit it would be necessary to enlarge the excise, to place im- 
posts upon sugar, tea, and coffee, and probably to increase the 
protective features of the tariff, though the last device, according 
to Mr. Lubin, would take from one pocket of the farmer what 
the export bounty had lodged in the other. To tighten thus the 
screws of the machinery of taxation in the interest of a class 
would run counter to the prejudices of the people and would 
thereby violate a fundamental principle of finance. Nor is this 
all. The volume of agricultural exports varies from year to year 
with the foreign demand and other conditions beyond the power 
of government officials to control or forecast. The exportation 
of wheat in the fiscal year 1892, for example, was more than 
three times that of the year preceding. There was also an 
enormous and unforeseen increase in the exports of farm staples 
during the calendar year 1896, as compared with those of 1895. 
The impossibility of adjusting appropriations to the actual re- 
quirements of an export bounty upon agricultural staples is there- 
fore apparent. Such a bounty is thus open to the further serious 



746 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

objection that it would greatly increase the difficulty of main- 
taining a proper balance between the annual income and the 
expenditure of the nation. 

The principle which lies at the basis of a bounty upon agri- 
cultural exports is, furthermore, antagonistic to economic and 
social progress. It looks with disfavor upon the introduction of 
improvements, whereby production is cheapened and human wants 
are more easily satisfied, and places the interest of a class above 
that of society in general. Carried to its logical conclusion, the 
principle would justify some kind of state aid to those in every 
industry, who, through being under-sold, are subjected to financial 
loss. Within the past fifty years the machinery employed in the 
iron, cotton, and woolen industries has several times been rendered 
worthless, save for use as old iron, by the introduction of cheapen- 
ing appliances in production. Nor has the process stopped. The 
owners of machinery that is, so to speak, invented out of ex- 
istence suffer loss ; but society, being enabled to satisfy its wants 
more easily, gains. That the advantage to the mass warrants 
disregard of the detriment to the few is a familiar idea in 
respect to other industries than agriculture. Society welcomes 
cheaper transportation, cheaper clothing, and lower prices for all 
of the products of city life ; and when such changes occur the 
public looks on with unconcern and even with some degree of 
pleasure — especially if those upon whom such economic prog- 
ress entails financial loss are the stockholders in some corpora- 
tion. Certainly, then, the process which cheapens food — a prime 
necessity of life — is not to be judged by a different standard. 

Finally, we have to consider the policy of bounties in its 
bearing on the fact that, considering their efficiency, too large 
a percentage of the people of the United States are engaged in 
the production of food. Bounties upon agricultural exports would 
simply be an inducement to men to engage in an industry that 
is already overdone. Nearly 40 per cent of those ten years of 
age and over employed in various occupations in the United 
States are engaged in farming pursuits, while in the highest 
development of agriculture 20 to 25 per cent at most could furnish 
food for all. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 747 

At the present time the rapid increase of city populations, the 
development of manufacturing industries, and the larger expendi- 
ture of energy in the production of such articles as eggs, butter, 
small fruits, etc., are tending to reduce the plethora of those 
engaged in the production of the staple products of the farm, 
and to bring about a more healthy balance of industries. It is 
difficult to realize the rapidity with which the people of the 
United States are passing industrially from agriculture to manu- 
facturing. Between 1850 and 1890 the capital invested in manu- 
factures increased from $533,000,000 to $6,180,000,000, and 
the wages annually paid from $237,000,000 to $2,000,000,000. 
The manufactures of the United States " exceed those of the 
mother country in the proportion of 7 to 4 and are increas- 
ing at a rate which, if maintained for a quarter of a century, 
will make the United States as important a source of supply for 
manufactured articles as it now is of agricultural products." The 
United States is going into the business of manufacturing for 
export at a rate which is causing grave apprehensions to English 
and other European manufacturers, and l ! will probably in the 
near future dominate all the markets of the world in the produc- 
tion of manufactured goods." American steel, dry goods, paper, 
and carpets are successfully competing in the markets of the 
world, even in those of England herself. Only recently a press 
dispatch announced the shipment of a cargo of twenty loco- 
motives on a single vessel to Russia. 

All this is indicative of the direction in which the highest 
economic interests of the nation lie. However much relief legis- 
lative remedies may afford the farmer, his prosperity is largely 
dependent upon such a spontaneous redistribution of the work- 
ing energy of the people as will secure the wisest adjustment 
of economic force. A fiscal policy like the export bounty, which 
would counteract this tendency, w r ould strike at a process from 
the further progress of which the farmer has much to gain, 
and would prevent the most effective application of the wealth- 
producing power of the nation. 

To summarize : in considering the proposal to establish a sys- 
tem of bounties upon exports of agricultural staples, we have found 



748 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

that Mr. Lubin's argument in its behalf is without logical founda- 
tion ; that such a system probably would not permanently maintain 
the prices of agricultural staples at a higher level ; that under 
our form of popular goverment this policy could not be carried 
out with any steadfastness of purpose ; that it is contrary to the 
financial interests of the treasury ; that it is opposed to economic 
and social progress ; and that it is hostile to the most economic 
expenditure of the wealth-producing energy of the nation. 

The importance of thrift as a remedy for agricultural depres- \ 
sion. Those whose knowledge of the subject is a product of 
imagination rather than of actual experience are prone to dwell 
upon the attractiveness of farm life. The pleasures of agriculture 
have long been a favorite topic with poets ; and even hard-headed 
business men are frequently convinced, by the familiar pictures 
of nature's cooperation with the farmer — of the growth of his 
crops and live stock in value while he is asleep — that the life of 
the farmer is one of comparative ease. In marked contrast with 
such an impression are the stern realities : nature frequently 
defeats the efforts of the farmer, and his life is spent in per- 
sistent physical toil. In this routine the women of his household 
cooperate. They begin with the early dawn a busy round of toil 
•that scarcely ends with darkness. On many farms they not only 
cook, wash, bake, and care for the house, but also supply the 
table with vegetables, milk, butter, eggs, and poultry, besides pay- 
ing for the necessary groceries of the family and for their own 
clothing out of the products of the garden, dairy, and hennery, 
which they care for with their own hands. Probably among no 
class of equal social standing do the women so generally work 
as hard or contribute as much to economic success. 

The conditions of success upon the farm are probably as 
well supplied as anywhere among those religious sects known as 
Dunkards and Mennonites, and nowhere else are the evidences 
of agricultural prosperity more apparent. But among the mass 
of our country people, as President Jordan has observed, "a 
notion has been spreading . . . that the dwellers in towns do 
1 not have to work to make a living, or do not have to work 
hard ' ; and the farmer is coming to think that • the day of hard 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 749 

labor has passed, or ought to pass.'' The economic future of 
all who act on this principle is without hope. 

It is not enough, however, for the farmer to work hard : he 
must also exercise good business judgment. The farmer, at the 
present time much more than formerly, sells what he produces 
and buys what he consumes. His business relationships have 
greatly enlarged, and it follows that a knowledge of business 
methods counts more in his favor. A man may be highly indus- 
trious and yet, owing to a deficiency in business tact, may fail 
in the struggle of life. 

Success in farming depends, finally, upon supplementing hard 
work and sound judgment with frugal living. The farmer who 
would woo prosperity with any hope of winning her must live 
within his means. It is impossible to state in general terms a 
rule of justifiable expenditure : this is a matter each must de- 
termine for himself. 'Some who are struggling to pay for a farm 
find it necessary to limit their expenses to the simplest neces- 
saries of life. As Booker T. Washington has said : ' ( Art and 
music for people who live in rented houses and have no bank 
account are not the most important subjects to which attention 
can be given. Such education creates wants without a corre- 
sponding ability to supply these increased wants." Social philos- 
ophers will probably criticize the standard of living involved in 
this view. It is not necessary, however, for all farmers to be 
equally saving. Some have ample means for books, magazines, 
music, travel, the higher education of their children, modern and 
well-furnished houses, and commodious barns. Some who could 
well afford these things are lacking in taste for them, while 
others have found the struggle of life so severe that they have 
never cultivated the habit of spending money sufficiently to find 
it a pleasure. In general, however, even those farmers who 
are fairly well-to-do find it necessary to refrain from anything 
approaching luxury or ostentation. 

The suggestion that the solution for the farmer's economic 
difficulties depends upon limiting expenditure to income meets 
with various objections. It is argued, for example, that were the 
doctrine of saving herein enjoined to be generally carried out, 



750 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

industrial paralysis would follow because of the meagerness of 
consumption. In reply to this, it is to be observed that thrift 
and not parsimony is the quality commended. The former incul- 
cates saving in the present, with reference to spending in the 
future ; some material comfort is sacrificed now, but only for the 
purpose of having it with greater certainty in time to come. 
The latter plans to avoid expenditure everywhere and always. 
Thrift is not content with securing V unto the end a meager 
subsistence without improvement of conditions of life and sur- 
roundings " ; parsimony is content with this. Thrift is, therefore, 
economically sound, while parsimony is not. Looked at in its 
true light, the doctrine of saving is complementary to that of 
spending. The latter is conditioned by the former and vice versa. 
But under the conditions of American life, society need give 
itself no concern lest the disposition to spend should fail to keep 
pace with the ability to do so. We may at least be assured that 
no man of sense, who is struggling to win economic independ- 
ence on the farm, will spend in order to make times good. 
Prosperity based upon extravagance cannot be permanent. 

It may be urged, again, that farmers should live as well as 
the members of any other social class ; and that, if they are to 
adjust expenditures to incomes, they will not be able to share in 
the good things of life to the same degree as the members of 
some other classes in society. In this observation there is much 
force ; and it may be remarked in passing that the writer yields 
to.no one in his desire that farmers should have as many of the 
material comforts of life as the members of any other class. But 
the incontestable fact is that they cannot ; nor is this peculiar to 
the occupation of the farmer. The standard of comfort enjoyed 
by those who live in towns and cities also varies widely. How 
far- the present system of distribution falls short of giving each 
his due, it is impossible to say. It is probable, however, that any 
system that did not recognize differences in skill, executive talent, 
etc., as a basis upon which to assign to some more and to others 
less, not only would be doomed to failure, but would so curtail 
production as to be highly injurious from a social point of view. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 751 

In other words, differences in the standard of comfort must be 
accepted as permanent facts in social arrangements. 

Something more than criticism of the present order of things 
is necessary for the American farmer. He stands confronted 
with certain conditions which are, for the most part, unalterable. 
What, then, is he to do ? There is but one reply. Face the con- 
ditions as they are, and pay for success the price which they 
require. At the present time, side by side with those who fail 
are others who, by their industry, sound judgment, and frugality, 
are going on to a competency. These are the qualities through 
which tenants are rising to the ownership of the farms which 
they occupy, while owners are in turn descending to the station 
of tenants. In the present industrial struggle the fittest are des- 
tined to survive, and the test of fitness for each individual lies 
in the adjustment of expenditure to income. This has ever been 
the method by which the American farmer has achieved success, 
even during times of the greatest agricultural prosperity, and 
especially during every period of low prices for the products of 
the farm. The conclusion is not hastily drawn, therefore, that 
those qualities which are best summed up in the word t( thrift," 
and which have served the farmers of the United States so well 
in the past, are their main reliance during the present period of 
agricultural depression. 

CONCLUSION 

For the purpose of continuing the consideration of the farmer's 
economic condition, it is intended, in this concluding part, to 
make a comparative study of prices, of wages of farm labor, of 
taxes, of rural wealth, of standards of living in agricultural com- 
munities, and of the farmer's situation in contrast with his fellows. 

1. Prices. In addition to the light thrown upon this subject 
in the preceding pages, it is important to hold in mind the 
following considerations : 

The farmer's interest does not lie exclusively in receiving re- 
munerative prices for the commodities he may have to sell. His 
well-being is quite as much dependent upon the prices he in 



752 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

turn must pay for articles which either enter into the personal 
consumption of himself and family or are used in the process of 
production. A comparative study of the fluctuations in the prices 
of agricultural products and of commodities in general between 
1840 and 1 89 1 reveals several important facts: 

First, there have been three periods during which the average 
of agricultural prices has ruled lower than that of general prices : 
1840-1853, 1876-1880, 1883-1890. During the intervening 
periods agricultural prices ranged relatively high. From 1840 to 
1853 the general average of agricultural prices ranged lower 
than at any other time in fifty-two years. In Ohio three-year-old 
ox teams, well matched and well broken, sold in 1 842-1846 for 
$24 to $30; in 1850, nice lambs weighing forty pounds sold for 
56 cents per nead, four-year-old steers for $15, dressed pork at 
$1.50 per hundredweight, cheese at 4 to 4J cents per pound, 
wheat at 25 to 30 cents, and oats at 10 to 15 cents per bushel. 

Second, with the exception of i860 -186 5, a sympathetic re- 
lationship is found to exist between general and agricultural 
prices. As a rule, when the farmer received low prices for his 
produce, he paid low prices in turn for the articles he bought. 
This is well illustrated by the tendency of prices of farm ma- 
chinery to move downward in company with the price of farm 
produce. Thus, it has been shown that the number of bushels 
of wheat, corn, or oats required to pay for a list of ordinary farm 
implements, including a binder, a mower, a two-horse cultivator, 
and a wagon was less in 1889 than in 1873. The report of the 
Pennsylvania Bureau of Industrial Statistics for 1890 shows that 
in Chester County the average decline of wheat from 1 880-1 881 
to 1 889 -1 890 was 29.1 per cent; of corn, 16.9 per cent; of 
oats, 15.4 per cent. 

During the same time the decline in the more costly farm machinery . . . 
was 33.9 per cent; in the lesser farm implements, such as shovels, rakes, hoes, 
scythes, and pitchforks, 26 per cent ; and the average rate of decline in ten 
selected articles of staple use, such as sugars, tea, coffee, salt, and standard 
cottons, calicoes, ginghams, and coarse boots, was 15.3 per cent. 

Third, the economic condition of any particular farmer 'de- 
pends largely upon the kinds of commodities he produces, and 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 753 

upon the proportions in which he puts them upon the market. 
For example, in the seven years ending with 1891, the average 
price of wheat was 24 per cent lower than in i860, that of corn 
25 per cent, that of hogs for live weight 22 per cent; while dur- 
ing the same period tobacco averaged 20 per cent higher than 
in i860, mutton sheep 29 per cent, and fat cattle 28 per cent. 

Likewise, the farmer's condition depends very greatly upon 
what articles he buys, and in what ratio various commodities 
enter into the budget of his expenditure. Thus, during the 
seven years ending with 1891, cloths and clothing were 16 per 
cent lower than in i860, metals and implements 24 per cent, 
and house-furnishing goods 30 per cent. The conditions have 
therefore been favorable for those families with a liking for good 
clothes and for a house furnished in an attractive manner. On 
the other hand, the farmer who built a new house or barn in 
1 89 1 had to pay 24 per cent more for lumber and building 
materials than in i860. 

No comparative study of farm prices, however, should fail to 
take account of the low price level for farm products which has 
prevailed since 1891. The effect of this upon the burden of 
mortgage indebtedness has already been pointed out. But the 
farmer has also suffered in consequence as a consumer. Owing 
to his inability to reduce adequately the cost of production, the 
simultaneous decline in prices of commodities which he buys has 
afforded him no compensation commensurate with the fall in 
the prices of his own products. 

2. Farm wages. In regard to the cost of labor, the farmer 
has been placed at a disadvantage by the recent fall in prices. 
Wages of hired labor have declined somewhat during recent 
years, but not to such an extent as adequately to offset the 
downward movement in the price of farm commodities. Today 
wages of farm labor are almost double what they were fifty years 
ago. This increase in the cost of labor, together with the un- 
certainty about securing any help at all during critical periods, 
such as harvest time, has doubtless hastened the introduction of 
labor-saving machines upon the farm as a matter of economy, 
convenience, and necessity. Specialization in farming has also 



754 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

quickened the introduction of agricultural machinery. This is 
illustrated in the development of wheat production in the North- 
west, which could not have taken place on such a grand scale 
without the aid of the binder. But to whatever extent machines 
may have been substituted for manual labor, there has been since 
1 89 1 no reduction in their cost sufficient to lessen materially the 
farmer's outlay in production. Nor was the fall in prices of farm 
products beginning with 1892 due in any marked degree to the 
introduction of machinery prior to that date. Successive improve- 
ments in a machine and reductions in its price always precede its 
general use ; and these features were not especially characteristic 
of the several years preceding 1892. There was, however, a notice- 
able increase in the export value of agricultural implements during 
these years, and of this increase harvesting machinery contributed 
an important item — a fact probably related to the enlarged wheat 
production of Russia and Argentina in recent years. 

3. Rural wealth. During the forty years ending with 1890, 
rural wealth increased fourfold. Even during the decade 1880- 
1890, notwithstanding the marked depreciation of farm lands in 
certain states, there was for the country at large a substantial 
advance in the sum total of rural wealth. The source of this 
increase, however, has not been confined to the ordinary profits 
of the farmer's business. Part of it is to be credited to soil 
exploitation, and part to the V unearned increment" incidental to 
the growth of land values. An increase within a generation of 
more than $25 per acre in the value of farm lands in many states 
roughly measures the influence of the latter factor ; that of the 
former is indicated by the cost of purchased fertility. It has 
been demonstrated that, though ft the wheat crops of Ohio have 
been slightly increased by the use of commercial fertilizers, . . . 
the average cost of this increase has equaled its market value." 
These conditions have unquestionably attracted energy from other 
pursuits into the business of food production, with the effect of 
depressing agricultural profits proper below their natural level. 

********** 

4. The farmer in contrast with his fellows. Let us now com- 
pare the farmer's well-being with that of his fellows in other 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 755 

walks of life. In addition to the economic and social forces favor- 
ing the ^accumulation of urban rather than rural wealth that were 
considered in Part II of this essay, certain further disadvantages 
of the farmer deserve attention. 

Again, the farmer is at a disadvantage in the fact that \ ? he 
deals altogether with a raw material." In explanation of this 
statement, President James H. Canfield writes : 

It seems to me that as civilization advances, and as invention and ingenuity 
carry the final product, in a certain sense, further from the initial point at 
which the work of transmutation is taken up, the greater part of the returns 
will go to reward the ingenuity and intelligence of the latter processes ; and 
a much less proportionate part will be returned to the one who practically 
handles the raw material. I cannot believe that the man who mines iron and 
coal will ever be as well paid as the man who makes watch springs. Perhaps 
a better illustration would be that the men who construct the different portions 
of a fine carriage and assemble these into one finished product will always be 
better paid than the men who cut the timber and hauled it to mill. 

The farmer is at a further disadvantage in that the products 
of his labor are especially subject to instability of price. This 
is due to the fact that he is largely engaged in the production 
of commodities which have in general no utility save in satis- 
fying the demand for food ; and for such products the demand 
is relatively inelastic. Hence, a sudden increase or decrease in 
the supply of farm products causes a relatively great fluctuation 
in price. 

As an offset to the disadvantages under which the farmer 
labors as compared with those who are engaged in urban indus- 
tries, there are certain particulars in which his condition is better 
than theirs. In the first place, he has more generally succeeded 
in securing for himself a home and a small capital than the 
men of other industrial classes. Of farm proprietors under 
twenty-five years of age, 32 per cent are owners, and the per- 
centage increases with age up to 83 per cent for owners of 
sixty years of age and over. Of home proprietors less than 
twenty-five years of age, only 13 per cent own their homes, 
and the percentage increases without interruption to 57 per cent 
for owners of sixty years of age and over. Of all farm families, 



756 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

65 per cent own their homes, while but 36 per cent of the 
homes in towns and cities are owned by the occupants. It is 
true that the opportunities to acquire a vast fortune are greater 
in the cities than in the country, but it should not be overlooked 
that these opportunities are relatively few, and that rural wealth 
is not marked by that inequality of distribution so characteristic 
of urban wealth. Notwithstanding the more rapid increase of 
the latter, it is probable that on an average the farmer of the 
United States ends his days in a better financial condition than 
he would have attained had he begun his industrial career in 
the city rather than in the country. 

Home ownership, however, is not always a trustworthy crite- 
rion of the relative well-being of classes. There is in the cities 
a considerable class who do not generally own their homes, but 
who are far above the farmers in material prosperity. It is 
not, however, with this class that the farmers are naturally com- 
pared, but with that great majority who work for wages or for 
small salaries. Here again the test of home ownership is illu- 
sory, for, owing to the uncertainty of tenure in employment 
among the wage-earning class, the inducement to home owner- 
ship is far weaker than among farmers. But in this very fact 
appears the more desirable position of the latter ; since they 
have — what the wages class lacks — a controlling voice in 
determining the conditions under which they labor. 

Again, the farmer is less disastrously affected than others 
by panics and commercial depressions. Three reasons may be 
assigned in explanation of this. In the first place, the products 
of the farm are largely articles of absolute necessity. However 
much the masses of the people, in times of economic pressure, 
may dispense with the comforts of life, the demand for food 
remains relatively constant. Consequently, during times of eco- 
nomic disturbance the prices which farm products command are 
less unfavorably affected than those of many other classes of com- 
modities. In the second place, in the words of a high authority, 
" farmers deal on a cash basis to a larger extent than most pro- 
ducers. The main trouble in panic times is that those who have 
relied largely upon credit find their credit withdrawn or largely 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 757 

curtailed. Naturally such a state of things does not affect so seri- 
ously the class that, more than any other, is accustomed to pay 
and receive cash." 

Finally, the farmer sells less of what he produces and buys 
less of what he consumes than many other classes in industrial 
society. No part of the services of the laborer, for example, is 
capable of ministering to his material well-being till sold, and 
the commodities that are adapted to his wants are bought in 
exchange. The farmer is also less under the necessity of real- 
izing immediately on his labor than is the worker in cities. 
The efforts of the former crystallize to a large extent into non- 
perishable products, while the services of the latter must be 
sold day by day or lost forever. The well-being of the farmer is 
thus not so dependent upon general economic conditions, and 
he therefore feels less keenly the disturbance which a panic or 
commercial depression creates in industrial society. 

The economic basis for the existing discontent among the 
agricultural classes may now be summarized as follows : 
********** 

The industry of the farmer, especially in some of the West- 
ern states, has in many cases been overcome by crop disasters, 
and those ambitious to acquire homes have been defeated by 
unfavorable weather. 

The sharp and unexpected fall in prices of many farm staples 
since 1891, which it has been impossible to meet by lowering 
the cost of production, have inflicted serious losses upon the 
producer. 

These conditions have made more difficult the payment of 
interest charges and mortgage debts, have increased the relative 
number of mortgage foreclosures, have prolonged the period 
required for tenants to rise to land ownership, have caused the 
expense for hired labor to be a greater drain upon the resources 
of the farm, have made the inequitable burden imposed upon 
the farmer by the general property tax more difficult to carry, 
have increased the strain of maintaining a higher standard of 
living, and have rendered less endurable the tyranny of railway 
discriminations and the exactions of trusts. Furthermore, since 



758 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the great mass of farmers, after starting in life with no other 
resources than an abundance of energy and a willingness to 
work, have attained only very modest incomes, any losses to 
which they have been subjected have been more keenly felt 
than if they had been possessed of more abundant means. 

Our study has thus far been occupied with the economic basis 
of the farmer's discontent. A satisfactory result, however, requires 
an appreciation of the far more subtle influences that -produce the 
general condition of restlessness in nineteenth-century society. On 
final analysis much of the social unrest of the age springs from a 
longing in the human breast for development, from dissatisfaction 
with any condition or station in life, however comfortable or lux- 
urious, that offers no chance to rise, no opportunity to progress. 
■' Man is by nature a discontented animal. Satisfy one of his de- 
sires and forthwith he feels the sting of another." In short, the 
ideal of a progressive society, which so thoroughly possesses the 
Western mind, is in no small degree responsible for social discon- 
tent. This ideal has been strengthened by the enormous strides 
society has taken, within the memory of men now living, through 
the modern development of transportation and communication. 

The civilizations of the Orient, which rest satisfied with the 
institutions handed down by tradition, whose ideal is that of a 
static social condition equally good for all time, do not have social 
agitations. The difference between the static civilizations of the 
Orient and the dynamic society of the Occident is, it is true, 
the difference between social contentment and social unrest ; but 
in the former the masses are content with a degraded state of 
equality, while in the latter unrest is the mainspring of their 
progress. Professor Gunton has said : 

If the English in India could make the Hindoo laborer want more things, 
they could soon civilize him up to their own standard. If the Russian peasants 
were not content with so little, the development of Russia might run on at 
equal speed with that of the United States. If our Indians could only be 
made to want houses and steam machinery and good clothes enough to work 
for them, the Indian problem would solve itself in a single decade. 

The contented state of the Oriental mind is what renders any 
amelioration of Eastern civilizations such a hopeless task. 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 759 

" The Hindoo having, as he generally has, sufficient for the 
day, is happy, content to sleep, and is hardly to be urged to 
greater work by the offer of greater earnings. ■ I have enough ; 
why should I work for more ? ' is not an unusual answer, and 
the offer of a higher place is often refused lest it should involve 
more effort." 

If progress is better than stagnation, so is Western unrest 
better than Eastern contentment. 

The idea of a progressive society is reenforced by other forces 
productive of discontent. Among these is the belief in the un- 
equal distribution of wealth. It is said that 4047 millionaires of 
the United States own 20 per cent of the wealth ; that 9 per cent 
of the families, including the millionaires, own 7 1 per cent ; and 
that " as little as 5 per cent of the nation's wealth is owned by 
52 per cent of the families." Few contemplate with entire satis- 
faction such statements as these, and, whatever may be their im- 
port, they create a feeling of uneasiness among the masses of the 
people. The spirit of modern times is prone to inquire whether 
society has a sufficient guarantee that the concentrated ownership 
of the nation's wealth will be used in such a way as to minister to 
the well-being of the people ; and the frequency with which the 
interests of the public are disregarded by trusts and corporations 
keeps alive the fires of the social discontent. 

This attitude of mind is doubtless somewhat tinged with the 
" complaint that every man who is compelled to walk has against 
the man who rides, . . . the complaint of him who has nothing 
against him who has something and of him who has something 
against him who has more." Moreover, "it is no difficult thing 
to make the world believe it has been misused " ; and there is 
consequently a great deal of unrest inspired by a feeling of social 
injustice that either has no foundation or rests upon a misinter- 
pretation of events. The willful distortion of facts and the diffu- 
sion of misinformation among the people by newspapers intent 
only on partisan ends, and by politicians who value their reputations 
for veracity less than they do their loyalty to party and their claims 
to office, are in large part responsible for this. But propositions 
which rest upon falsehood are none the less potent in arousing 



y6o READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the indignation of those who believe them than are those which 
rest upon truth. 

The spirit of democracy also lies at the basis of much of the 
unrest of our age. By democracy is here meant " the natural wish 
of a people to have a hand, if need be a controlling hand, in the 
management of their own affairs " ; an attitude of the public mind 
which makes " itself generally disagreeable by asking the Powers 
that Be at the most inconvenient moment whether they are the 
powers that ought to be." " Formerly the immense majority of 
men — our brothers — knew only their sufferings, their wants and 
their desires. They are beginning now to know their opportunity 
and their power." A people looking upon itself as the source of 
authority, conscious of its power and confident in its own wisdom, 
is a fertile soil for the seed of social uneasiness to grow in. Such 
a spirit is especially characteristic of the United States, where 
territorial expansion and marvelous social and material develop- 
ment have favored the feeling of national self-sufficiency. t( Men 
are even more eager than in Europe to hasten to the ends they 
desire, even more impatient of the delays which a reliance on 
natural forces involves, even more sensitive to the wretchedness of 
their fellows and to the mischiefs which vice and ignorance breed." 

A fundamental change in the attitude of men's minds towards 
life is another primary fact in the restlessness of modern times. 
For centuries a spirit of other-worldliness gave character to all 
mental activity, and controlled the conduct of society. 

Humanity . . . passed . . . intent on the terrors of sin, death, and judgment, 
along the highways of the world, and scarcely knew that they were sight- 
worthy, or that life is a blessing. Beauty is a snare, pleasure a sin, the world 
a fleeting show, man fallen and lost, death the only certainty, . . . abstinence 
and mortification the only safe rules of life. 

To men living in the gloomy presence of such thoughts, the 
conditions of life here were of little importance. " For the poor 
there was no physician ; for the dying, the monk and his crucifix. 
The aim was to smooth the sufferer's passage to the next world, 
not to save him for this." In marked contrast is the attitude of 
the thinker of today. How to render existence in this world more 
tolerable, how to realize an ideal social state, is the aim of the 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 761 

modern reformer. " The general appearance of comfort and well- 
being almost everywhere . . . indicates a disposition to live for 
the present rather than to sacrifice the present to the future." 
The masses are seized with a passion for the enjoyment of the 
material comforts of life, and it no longer suffices simply to com- 
mend to them the virtues of patience and forbearance. This 
revolution in the thinking and conduct of men has undoubtedly 
contributed greatly to the disquietude of the age. 

Hand in hand with the growth of democracy and a spirit of 
this-worldliness, the rationalistic tendencies of mankind have be- 
come stronger. The spirit of inquiry is being scrupulously applied 
to every phase of life. " Truth for authority and not authority for 
truth " is the spirit of the age. The tendency is to discard that 
which will not stand the test of reason, and with the growing 
intelligence of man this tendency has become more and more 
marked. Obviously, a society permeated with this spirit is destined 
to be in a continual state of ferment. 

Nor should the important role played by modern means of 
communication be overlooked. Never before were all the various 
facilities for interchange of thought so efficient and abundant. 
But for this fact the democratic and rationalistic spirits and 
all the factors productive of discontent would be largely stripped 
of their power. No one who has an idea to express need lack a 
vehicle in which to convey it to the world. Every phase and 
condition of life is reflected daily in the press. Much of modern 
discontent is due to a desire for improvement, and without a 
knowledge of present conditions this desire can have no intelli- 
gent basis. The explanation of much of the unrest of the age, 
therefore, is not that social conditions are inferior to what they 
formerly were, but that the public, through the medium of the 
telephone, the telegraph, and the printing press, is made ac- 
quainted with the terms of existence which everywhere obtain. 

As to American life in particular, the unrest so characteristic 
of it is in part due to the very wholesomeness of social and eco- 
nomic conditions. Probably in no other country is society in so 
much of a flux, or the mobility of the individual units so marked. 
There is a constant movement going on from below upward and 



762 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

from above downward. Each man, no matter into how humble 
a condition born, has a chance, and knows he has a chance, of 
rising ; and where he will be found later on in life cannot be 
predicted from the status of his birth. These conditions, however, 
give rise to hopes, involve the possibility of disappointment, and, 
therefore, contain within themselves the germs of discontent. 

Moreover, the energies of the nation have been absorbed for 
more than a generation in industrial expansion. Material develop- 
ment has been so sudden, the industrial activities and relationships 
of men have so greatly enlarged, that problems of an economic 
character have arisen more rapidly than they have been solved. 
The process of redefining the rights of individuals in their new 
relationships, of adjusting the legal framework of society to cor- 
porations, trusts, and all the complex phenomena of modern life, 
is necessarily slow. Meanwhile, the issues which in times past oc- 
cupied the public mind have disappeared. Political and religious 
freedom have been largely attained. The question of slavery was 
settled a generation ago by an appeal to arms. Men's minds are 
left free to deal with problems of social and economic import. 
At the same time the rapid increase of population and a rising 
standard of living intensify the competitive struggle of life ; and 
whatever influence the public domain may have exercised in 
lessening the intensity of this struggle is now largely a matter 
of the past. 

The farmer's discontent is in part a manifestation of these 
general conditions so prevalent in the nineteenth century in all 
Western civilizations. The wants of the rural population, in 
common with those of nearly all classes of society, have developed 
more rapidly than the means of satisfying them. The social 
requirements and customs of the times demand a larger outlay 
for dress, amusement, jewelry, travel, education, and even funeral 
expenses. Owing to the great variety which such classes of wants 
assume when they are once indulged, the higher standard of living 
in agricultural communities, far from contributing to contentment 
of mind, has probably had just the opposite effect. And the more 
luxurious style of life found in cities, especially the ostentatious 
display of those who have risen suddenly to wealth, makes the 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 763 

farmer feel that he is getting less than his share of the good 
things of life. As Professor Giddings says : 

The isolated farmer and his family have begun to be affected by the strain 
of modern life in a deplorable way. They are no longer ignorant of the luxu- 
ries of the towns and a simple manner of life no longer satisfies them. The 
house must be remodeled and refurnished ; the table must be varied ; clothing 
must be in style ; and the horses, carriages, and harnesses must be costly. The 
impossibility of maintaining this scale of expense under existing agricultural 
conditions embitters life, and finally, in many cases, destroys the mental balance. 

In addition to economic grievances and the disturbing influence 
of general social development, the nature of the farmer's occupa- 
tion is such as to contribute to a discontented frame of mind. 
However much intelligence or skill he may bring to his work, 
results after all depend largely upon nature. Not infrequently, 
when every possible precaution has been taken, his hopes are 
suddenly blasted by an unpropitious change in the weather. It 
is true that the adverse influence of unfavorable weather is likely 
to be exaggerated at the time, but it is none the less depressing 
in its psychological effect. The excessive rainfall or the unwelcome 
drought of summer, the cutting winds of a rigorous winter, the 
late frosts of spring or the early frosts of autumn — these are 
the product of natural forces with which the farmer is largely 
powerless to cope. In the presence of such phenomena, the 
most hopeful minds are apt to become depressed and to give 
expression to feelings of discontent. 



VII. RURAL ORGANIZATION AND 
MARKETING 

AGRICULTURAL SYNDICATES IN FRANCE 

By Henry W. Wolff 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Ecoitomics, Vol. VIII, p. 98, October, 1893) 

IT MAY be a fact of some interest for Americans that the 
Syndicats Agricoles, which- are rightly attracting the attention 
of agricultural authorities in various parts of the world and 
promise entirely to revolutionize French rural economy, owe 
their origin, in the first instance, to an American idea. Count 
Rocquigny, in the interesting account which he has published of 
the agricultural associations with which his name has become 
creditably associated, candidly admits that it was the V Farmers' 
Alliances " of the United States which first suggested the present 
form of French agricultural combination to its authors. As it 
happens, the offspring bids fair to prove of wider and more 
enduring benefit than the parent. Its past record has been one 
of truly astounding successes. It has spread as if by magic. In 
the brief space of barely a decade it has covered all France with 
a network of organizations ministering to the needs of agriculture 
in a surprising variety of ways and flourishing almost everywhere. 
There is not a department now without its Syndicats, — linked 
together in departmental or, beyond that, in regional "groups," 
or not, as the spirit of union or of local independence happens 
to have prompted members, — generally doing good work. In 
M. Gatellier's words, the syndicates have " democratized " the 
use of feeding stuffs, artificial manures, and improved agricul- 
tural implements, increasing the consumption of manures alone 

764 



AGRICULTURAL SYNDICATES IN FRANCE 765 

from a poor 52,000,000 francs to 120,000,000, which promises 
a great increase in the near future, while reducing the current 
prices by from 20 to 30 per cent and substituting a genuine 
article for one very much adulterated. They are diffusing agri- 
cultural education, improving cultivation, and — greatest benefit 
of all — they are teaching the value of independent thought and 
independent action to the French peasant, whose one distinctive 
fault heretofore has been the want of "private initiative," and 
schooling him to rely upon himself, and the assistance which by 
exchange he can secure from his neighbors, rather than on the 
questionable benefit of State help. 

Count Rocquigny's book explains all the various methods 
employed, and presents, indeed, a highly attractive picture of 
syndicate work accomplished, in which it would not be possible 
to point out any one line which runs counter to truth. But to 
the eye of one who has seen the syndicates actually at work the 
picture appears a little wanting in clearness, owing to something 
of a false perspective, arising from a failure to indicate the pre- 
cise proportion between the measure of success actually attained 
on different portions of the ground covered. This is easily ex- 
plained by the fact that the count is writing far more with a 
view to incite his own countrymen to syndicatist action than 
merely to enlighten foreigners as to what has been accomplished. 
But to foreigners the caution is necessary. 

The Syndicats began with a most ambitious programme. The 
Socialists had made inconvenient headway in some specifically 
agricultural departments of Central France. Laborers' unions had 
been formed, strikes were being organized, piecework was being 
protested against. To meet such organizations on their own 
ground and prevent the formation of more, Professor Tanviray 
and his friends opposed to the "class" syndicates, consisting of 
workingmen only, their new "mixed" syndicates, composed both 
of small folk and of large landowners. And they declared fierce 
war against V Socialism," which war, even from their own point 
of view, appears to have been carried a trifle too far. Indeed, 
one whole " part " of Count Rocquigny's book is taken up with 
arguments against Socialism. The Syndicats wanted to build 



J66 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

up as well as pull down. By their professors teaching technical 
knowledge, by their laboratories and their monthly publications, 
— the prized Bulletin, which in most districts has had a decided 
success, — by the prize competitions organized, — the prizes offered 
for better cultivation, for the construction of liquid-manure tanks, 
for the use of perfected implements, — by the advice freely given 
on the use of artificial manures, and by similar action, the syndi- 
cates have become one of the most serviceable agents of technical 
education in France. Beyond that they proposed effectively to 
defend agricultural interests on the political battlefield. And in 
one instance, at the general election of 1889, the Syndicat 
Economique Agricole of Paris really was fortunate enough to 
score a success of this kind, by inducing a majority of the candi- 
dates for the new Chamber to accept openly the agricultural 
programme, — rejection of the proposed commercial treaty with 
Switzerland, lowering of the railway tariff, and a reduction of 
the land tax, all which measures have been carried. They also 
aimed at organizing cooperative sales of agricultural produce, 
combination for productive purposes, in the shape of cooperative 
dairies, vintries, and the like. 

All this really is on paper the most interesting portion of the 
work done. One seems to feel from Count Rocquigny's account 
as if the great problem, the favorite problem with agriculturists 
of all nations, had at length been solved, and farmers had been 
taught to become their own salesmen, altogether* independent of 
intermediaries. We read of horses and cider sold by syndicates 
in Normandy, of a syndicate taking an army contract for straw, 
and of similar transactions. But, in truth, all this amounts to 
very little. The practical successes which at all deserve speaking 
of are on this ground still to come. On the other hand, the 
syndicates have really been surprisingly successful in their organ- 
ization of supply cooperation, and, beyond that, in their organiza- 
tion of cooperation for common work, much of which Anglo-Saxon 
and German farmers accomplish in combination, without resort to 
a formally constituted union. In France the spirit of combination 
was before 1883 altogether undeveloped, but the Syndicats must 
not take all the credit for this success exclusively to themselves. 



AGRICULTURAL SYNDICATES IN FRANCE 767 

They have come upon the scene in the very nick of time, and, 
by the help of very able officers and a good administration, have 
managed to turn favorable circumstances to excellent account. In 
truth, however, all France, which previously looked upon cooper- 
ation only as a useful handmaid to production, promising to bring 
emancipation and independence to workingmen, has lately be- 
come alive to the value of cooperation of other kinds, more 
particularly credit and supply. While agricultural syndicates have 
been organizing, agricultural cooperative supply stores, after the 
pattern of the London army and navy stores, have been spring- 
ing up and multiplying in towns ; and in the south of France 
cooperative people's banks have become a recognized source of 
popular credit. Cooperative associations are now multiplying 
apace ; and the official account 'of the growth of cooperation in 
its various aspects, which is in slow course of preparation in the 
Rue de Grenelle, promises- to prove a most interesting publication. 
But, unquestionably, the Syndicats have managed to guide and 
swell this general current beyond anything which could have been 
anticipated. 

The Syndicat movement, in fact, represents one of the most 
beneficently effective social or economic movements which France 
has seen for many a year. And its possibilities, as M. Brelay 
puts it, altogether defy measuring. This is the more surprising, 
since the act of 1884, which forms the constitutional charter of 
Syndicats, deliberately places hindrances in the way of these 
institutions, and makes it difficult for them to transact business. 
Hence those rather cumbrous methods of sale and purchase, 
which there is no space here to describe, and which Count 
Rocquigny admits to be roundabout and troublesome. Hence, 
also, the curious classification of members, which seems so wholly 
opposed to the democratic idea, and which one can scarcely 
expect to see maintained long in republican France, though up 
to the present no serious inconveniences appear to have risen. 
There are membres fondateurs — rich men paying heavy subscrip- 
tions and pledging themselves for a fixed term of perhaps five 
years — and membres effectifs — poor cultivators, who pay a small 
subscription and are free to come and go. It is the latter mainly 



768 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

who are intended to derive any benefit ; and in the very few 
credit syndicates thus far formed it is they alone who do so. 
The rich men are patrons. Possibly that mode of organization 
was inevitable, but it is obviously open to objection. It does not 
represent the purest form of self-help. However this may be, it 
is impossible not to admire the great good which these institutions 
have done to French agriculture when one sees it. And one can- 
not help thinking that from cooperation practised in so striking 
a variety of forms — cooperation not only in every description of 
supply and of insurance but also in such work as draining and 
embanking, fumigation to repel the frost from vineyards, exter- 
minating noxious insects, buying implements for common use, 
from large steam threshing-machines down to the smallest tools ; 
cooperation for blending vines 'from different departments, for 
arbitration, for settling the proper customs as between incoming 
and outgoing tenants, and many things more — agriculturists in 
other countries ought to be able to learn something, even though 
for the ordinary purchase of goods they do not require a new 
form of association. 



RELATION OF JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 
TO THE HANDLING OF PRODUCE 

By C. W. Thompson, Investigator, Rural Organization Service, 
United States Department of Agriculture 

(Reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and 
Social Science, November, 191 3) 

SO LONG as each locality produces its own food supply, the 
problem of distribution is very simple. Either there is no 
distribution at all, viz. each consumer produces his own supply, or 
there is direct sale by producer to consumer as in the old-time 
fairs, or there is at most a local merchant who acts as an inter- 
mediary. A jobber or commission man does not fit into such 
a simple local economy, and this explains the absence of such 
middlemen until about the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

It is only as economic changes tend to broaden markets be- 
yond the producing localities that the need for a larger distributive 
machinery arises. Such a widening of the market along' geo- 
graphical lines was a characteristic change during the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries, mainly as a result of improvements in 
canal and railway transportation. A still further widening of the 
market has taken place during the last three or four decades, 
mainly as a result of improved means of refrigeration, but the 
latter extension of the market has been one of time rather than 
of space. 

That the widening of markets, made possible through improved 
transportation and refrigeration, is desirable will scarcely be ques- 
tioned by those who are conversant with the limitations and instabil- 
ity of conditions under the early local economy as contrasted with 
the variety in supply and the greater stability in prices of the larger 
markets. The form of distributive machinery that is best adapted 
to the needs of the enlarged markets is, however, not so clear. 

769 



7/0 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

It is the purpose of this paper to explain the relation of the 
commission man and jobber to the handling of produce in the 
enlarged markets of to-day, and to discuss some of the problems 
that have arisen in connection therewith. By commission man is 
meant an agent stationed at a primary market for the purpose of 
receiving consignments from shippers at a distance and disposing 
of the same at a stipulated rate of commission on the selling 
price. The term ''jobber" is used to apply to those dealers in the 
primary markets who buy outright from shippers at a distance, 
either through travelling agents or according to mailed quotations, 
and who sell to retail agencies or to other jobbers in the same or 
in other primary markets. 

A survey of the agencies handling produce in our primary mar- 
kets twenty or thirty years ago discloses very few jobbers. Prac- 
tically the whole field was held by the commission man. It was 
he who acted as the sole intermediary between the local shippers 
and the retail agencies of the cities during the initial widening of 
the market. The advent of the jobber into this line of business 
came at a later date. 

To understand why the commission man rather than the jobber 
first entered the primary market in the handling of farm produce 
we must bear in mind the degree of hazard which was then in- 
volved in such business. The fact is that no one cared to buy 
farm produce outright from distant shippers because of the risks 
involved. The only kind of business which then attracted men 
was that of an agent who could command a commission in pro- 
portion to the amount of produce handled, without incurring at 
the same time any liability regarding the quality or safety of the 
product. This meant that all risks involved had to he borne by 
the local shipper. 

An explanation of the factors contributing to those early risks 
requires the enumeration of a number of hazards. In the first 
place, the physical condition of the produce as it left the various 
farms was a matter of great uncertainty. Farmers had only 
the vaguest knowledge as to the demands of the market and 
would mingle produce of various grades and of various stages 
of ripeness or unripeness. The method of packing was equally 



JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 771 

unsystematic. The country merchant added poor handling and 
additional delay to the movement of the produce, while the train 
equipment, and slow movement of freight generally, rendered ex- 
tremely doubtful the quality of that portion of the produce which 
eventually reached the primary market. 

Then, too, there were grave moral hazards as well. Anyone 
familiar with this line of work could not fail to be impressed with 
the general lack of a sense of business integrity on the part of 
both the producer and the local shipper. Assurance might be 
given of the shipment of produce of high-grade quality, while the 
distinguishing characteristic of the returns would be oftentimes 
an utter lack of such quality. 

The lack of a moral business sense on the part of the producer 
or local shipper was not only equalled but greatly exceeded by 
that of the average commission man handling the produce in the 
primary markets. However, it is only as we realize the peculiar 
position he occupied that we can appreciate the practices usually 
attributed to him. 

The commission man was far enough away from his principal 
to feel reasonably free from surveillance of any sort. He could 
report account sales on initial shipments so as to indicate big 
returns and, having thus gained the confidence of shippers for 
further business, juggle the returns on large consignments to his 
own pecuniary advantage. It would naturally be his endeavor to 
handle as big a volume of produce as possible, regardless of the 
care given to it, inasmuch as his own income varied with the 
amount of the traffic. There was similarly an inducement for 
him to spread his own margin of gain beyond the nominal rate 
of commission by reporting the sale of produce at grades lower 
than those actually secured or by reporting sales at current prices 
when actual receipts involved an additional premium. 

Such a system placed the local shippers at a grave disadvantage, 
of course. They were represented at a distance by men whom 
they did not know and in transactions they could not scrutinize. 
Fortunately for them another avenue through the primary markets 
eventually opened up. This came with the advent of the jobber. 

It was, however, only after changes had made possible the 



772 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

movement of produce with care and dispatch between local sources 
of supply and the central distributing points that the jobber was 
induced to enter the field and buy outright. Previously, the extent 
of the risk involved had rendered it seemingly " impracticable to 
open up a jobbers' avenue of trade through the primary market. 

The earliest attempts at buying produce outright from primary 
markets were made by men who actually entered the local sources 
of supply and made purchases from local shippers. These field 
men would handle a variety of produce, some for purchase and 
some for sale. 

Because of the limited amount of each kind of produce handled 
it was necessary to distribute the field man's expenses over a vari- 
ety of both purchases and sales in order to carry on the business 
successfully. Only after a personal knowledge of the character of 
the local shipper had been gained and after the produce itself had 
been standardized so as to be identified with well-known grades, 
could the buying through field men be supplemented by purchases 
through mailed quotations or through calls by telephone or tele- 
graph. Even then, however, the use of actual field service 
continued to be employed in order to secure or hold trade in 
competition with other agencies in the same line of business. The 
specialized form of field work where men devote their buying to 
some single product, as in the case of the modern strawberry man, 
is a comparatively recent development and is limited to products 
subject to a high degree of localization and specialization. 

In another respect, too, from the standpoint of the local ship- 
per, the jobber's avenue of trade presented an important contrast 
to the older route, that via the commission man. Instead of the 
assumption of risks incident to consignments on commission, 
the local shipper naturally preferred the security of actual sales. 
The result was a gradual displacement of commission business by 
that of jobbing wherever the latter found conditions for buying 
suitable. This change took place partly by the entry of new men 
into the jobbing field, but often by a change in methods of doing 
business from commission to that of jobbing. 

While a considerable number of produce men who began buy- 
ing on a commission basis took up jobbing later, it was not 



JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 773 

uncommon to find a combination of both methods employed by the 
same firm. Dealers might handle certain lines on commission and 
buy other produce outright. Again a given commodity might be 
bought and sold in job lots at certain times and be taken in only 
on a commission basis later under different conditions. Such com- 
binations of commission and jobbing business are still a common 
practice in all our leading trade centers. 

The most important influence directing changes between the 
commission and jobbing methods of doing business is the move- 
ment of prices. Thus, during a period of uniform or rising prices 
the jobbing business is encouraged, whereas the conditions of 
over-supply leading to falling prices so far increase risks as to 
discourage jobbing and induce the dealer to accept shipments 
only on a commission basis. 

Nevertheless, jobbing has so far become established now in the 
produce business as to make it the rule, and commission buying 
the exception, in the handling of perishable products at our lead- 
ing primary markets. The extent to which the jobber has dis- 
placed the commission man is more noticeable in Chicago and the 
twin cities than it is in New York City. The main explanation 
for this will be appreciated more fully after we have discussed the 
problems connected with the handling of surplus stock. At this 
time it is sufficient to state that the mere size of the New- York 
market, enabling it to absorb large shipments at a relatively small 
change in prices, makes it seem the least risky place to consign 
produce that must be sent on commission. It should also be 
noted that where jobbing and commission business exist side by 
side in the same market the latter is now practically confined to 
the lower grades of produce. 

Not only has jobbing increased as compared with commission 
business but competition among jobbers in the buying field has 
become very keen and has led to peculiar developments along 
certain lines. Thus, in the case of butter we have an interesting 
situation revealed in connection with the practices of the recent 
butter board at Elgin. The tendency of that board to publish 
prices below those at which sales were actually made naturally 
aroused the indignation of the public. Nevertheless, the exact 



774 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

reason for such a procedure can only be understood in connec- 
tion with the buying practices of the jobbing houses. Competition 
in securing or holding trade from local shippers had gradually 
led jobbers to offer premiums in the purchase of butter, such 
premiums to consist of a given margin above the Elgin quota- 
tions. The thought of getting a premium above market prices 
was, of course, attractive to local creameries, since it enabled 
them to make a good showing on the quality of the butter. To 
the extent that the same jobbers could have the market quota- 
tions as determined upon by their own board at Elgin appear 
lower than actual sales warranted, the offering of premiums was 
an easy matter. However, after action was later taken by the 
courts against the practice of the butter board, leading to a drop- 
ping of official quotations and to the publication of actual sales 
on the street, the practice of offering local shippers an apparent 
bonus over the market price has had to be modified accordingly. 

Thus far our discussion of jobbing has centered mainly on the 
relation of the jobber to the source of supply. Attention will now 
be given more particularly to the selling activity of the jobber. 

Two sets of problems confront these middleman agencies in 
the sale of their produce : ( i ) the disposition of regular supplies 
through a more or less well-developed trade, and (2) the unloading 
of additional amounts of produce at times of a surplus. 

To meet the demands of regular buyers it is oftentimes neces- 
sary to work over the produce in order to put it in a condition 
that will appeal to the trade. It is also necessary to deliver the 
goods in the desired amount at the time and place it is wanted. 

Relatively little attention was given by commission men twenty 
or thirty years ago to the work of sorting and repacking produce. 
The tendency was to pass it on to city retailers in much the same 
condition it was received by the commission man. This meant 
that the retail agencies were called upon to do whatever sorting 
or packing was demanded by the consumer. 

In order to get the trade of the city retail agencies and to take 
advantage of the better prices which go with standardized goods, 
the jobbers soon took up the work of sorting and repacking. 
Wherever a gradual improvement has taken place in the quality 



JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 775 

of shipments from sources of supply the margin of gain from 
this kind of work necessarily becomes less. The amount of work 
of this kind, however, which still must be done on produce as it 
passes through the hands of jobbers, represents an appreciable 
part of the cost to the consumer. Any attempt to explain the 
middleman's margin must not overlook the items of cost arising 
in this way. 

When the jobber sells to retail agencies he must also deliver 
the produce in desired amounts and at the time and the place it 
is wanted. Accordingly such jobbers must be equipped with a 
suitable delivery service. Here, again, competition between job- 
bers has involved a comparative test in the quality of service 
rendered. The horse and wagon were the usual equipment for 
many years but have rapidly been displaced by the motor-truck. 
The use of the latter by certain firms practically compels its use 
by all the competitors. One of the most sweeping changes in 
recent years among wholesale and jobbing houses at the various 
primary markets is that of the displacement of the horse and 
wagon by the motor-truck. 

The jobber's task of disposing of surplus stock introduces a 
number of problems. He must find a way of unloading certain 
supplies within his own primary market because the condition of 
the produce will not permit its movement to other centers of 
trade. On the other hand, wherever a given primary market is 
overstocked as compared with others, he directs his shipments 
so as to equalize conditions of supply in the distributing centers 
so far as such movement is practicable. Let us first consider the 
situation within a given primary market. 

The demand from jobbers through the regular retail agencies 
varies considerably. This may be due to the uncertain manner 
in which the retailer distributes his wholesale orders. More gen- 
erally it is due to the variations in purchases from retail stock 
by the consumer. Only one illustration of the latter is sufficient 
to emphasize this. If the weather is attractive and housewives 
venture forth in large numbers so as to see the produce for sale 
at the various retail agencies, the latter can count on an unusually 
heavy demand for such goods. On the other hand, if weather 



7?6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

conditions suddenly become unfavorable, thus tending to keep a 
great many customers at home, much less than even the ordinary 
demand is reflected in the sales of the retailer. While such 
a reaction on the business of any retailer may not seem of very 
great moment, the combined effect of such variations in all the 
retail agencies drawing on the supplies of a given jobbing firm 
means considerable variation in the business of the latter agency. 
This shows one way in which the problem of unloading a surplus 
is presented to the jobber. 

Then, again, the sources of supply are even still more the 
source of variability. This is partly explained in the relative 
instability of business practices by local shippers in handling 
produce and partly due to the seasonal variation in production 
itself at sources within reach of the jobber's trade. 

The variations thus noted both in demand and supply show 
the need of some outlet for surplus stock. Assuming shipments 
to other primary markets impracticable, the jobber may partly 
satisfy this need by exchanges with other jobbers in his own 
center of trade. He may also unload on certain agencies other 
than the regularly established retail stores. 

Formerly, the street peddler served the latter purpose to a 
large extent. By bringing his goods out into the consumers' 
territory it was possible to create a demand for produce beyond 
what would have been effective through the retail stores alone. 
At the same time, it is true that the peddler's business consisted 
partly in a displacement of the retailer's trade. 

One of the noticeable changes in the city distributive ma- 
chinery, especially during the past decade, is a remarkable falling 
off in peddlers' business as it relates to the handling of produce. 
This change is doubtless due mainly to modifications in the 
wants of consumers themselves. The housewife who once was 
alert to the traffic of the street-vendor has largely become oblivi- 
ous to his movements, either because the exposure or quality of 
the peddlers' wares no longer appeals to her or because the 
orders by telephone or through the retailer's delivery service 
seem more in keeping with her social status. 



JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN yyy 

With the passing of the produce peddler, the unloading of 
surplus stock by jobbers has had to be augmented in other ways. 
No doubt the advent of the chain stores and the produce branch 
of department stores has aided in this, while at the same time 
increasing the regular trade. Moreover, the growing practice 
among the retail stores themselves of using their delivery service 
in soliciting orders and in calling especial attention to stocks 
they are anxious to move promptly has greatly increased the 
elasticity in demand placed upon jobbers by the retail trade. 

Thus far the problem of unloading a surplus within a given 
primary market has assumed a high degree of perishability in the 
produce, making necessary its immediate movement into the field 
of consumption. As a matter of fact, the most important devel- 
opment in the handling of produce during the last three decades 
has come through improvements in the art of refrigeration and 
a consequent lengthening of the period that perishable products 
may be held in the channels of distribution before going to the 
consumer. Moreover, such storing of foodstuffs has furnished 
the most effective means of solving the problem connected with 
the handling of the surplus. 

It is natural, therefore, that jobbers should be actively interested 
in the progress of refrigeration as applied to products they handle. 
Anyone present at the sessions of the International Congress on 
Refrigeration held in Chicago in September, 191 3, could not 
fail to observe the interest taken by jobbers in the deliberations 
of that body. Among the most intelligent questions asked regard- 
ing the technique of refrigeration processes or regarding the 
proper physical and chemical condition of produce to be placed 
in refrigeration were those from men actively engaged in the 
jobbing business. 

For most of the fruits and vegetables handled by jobbers the 
season of production in the source of supply is but a minor frac- 
tion of the period of time during which jobbers are called upon 
to supply the same to the retail trade. Holding goods in cold 
storage has thus become a necessary part of their business. It 
means that they must render available during seasons of scarcity 



778 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the amounts of produce sufficient to meet the consumers' de- 
mands, and for this purpose they must anticipate prospective 
needs during periods of plenty and build up reserves accordingly. 
To do so successfully they must be able to unload later at an 
advance in price sufficient to cover additional costs for rent, 
interest and insurance as well as a margin of return for the risks 
incurred. 

The risk feature becomes magnified when we remember the 
large number of agencies storing produce independently with only 
a vague knowledge of the actual supply held over for the future 
market. Not only is the amount in storage unknown but the 
various contingencies affecting the time and amount of additional 
future supplies are always a matter of grave uncertainty. The last- 
named difficulty was clearly exemplified during the winter of 191 3 
in connection with the storage of eggs. Unusually mild weather 
early in the winter had suddenly augmented fresh supplies, ren- 
dering exceedingly problematical the unloading of storage eggs 
whose supply under normal conditions would not have been exces- 
sive. Although jobbers began to cut prices, relying on elasticity 
of demand to remove the stored goods with sufficient dispatch, 
the retail agencies were more tardy in reducing their figures 
because of an unwillingness to sell at a loss. This explains why 
certain jobbers were ready to make terms with other avenues of 
sale, such as that created by women's clubs in some of our leading 
markets. 

Where jobbers dispose of their surplus by placing it in cold 
storage they are confronted with the need of setting aside the 
amount of capital represented by the stored goods. Few jobbers 
command the necessary money without resorting to borrowing. 
The usual course in this connection has been a resort to loans at 
the banks. However, the rise of large storage companies with 
superior facilities for credit has introduced important changes in 
this respect. 

Jobbers in the leading primary markets now often secure loans 
directly from storage firms, who in turn arrange loans at lower 
rates with the banks. Similarly, in securing the protection of 
insurance on the stored goods, jobbers find it advantageous to 



JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 779 

get their insurance from the same storage firm, which is enabled 
to take out at less cost with an insurance company a large and 
long-time blanket policy sufficient to cover all the policy risks 
assumed for jobbers. 

The discussion thus far has concerned the handling of a 
surplus more or less restricted in its use to a given primary 
market. However, the application of modern means of refrigera- 
tion to the handling of produce in transit has greatly facilitated 
the movement of such surplus stock between the various primary 
markets as well, until we now have nearly a nation-wide movement 
of most of our fruits and vegetables. 

This wider movement of surplus stock cannot be undertaken by 
jobbers without the use of facilities involving great increase in ex- 
pense. It is necessary to know from day to day the supply con- 
ditions of each of the primary markets, and this alone involves 
an outlay for telephone and telegraph expenses, the fixed charge 
of which it is impracticable to incur unless the jobber conducts 
his shipments between the primary markets on a sufficiently large 
scale. Then, too, this wider movement necessitates a knowledge 
of freight schedules and rates and of commercial practices that 
do not concern the dealer who limits his attention to a given 
trade center. 

Our discussion has revealed the complexity of services devolv- 
ing upon the middleman agencies in our modern distributive 
system. If the cost is to be reduced, such services must either 
be partly or wholly eliminated through changes in the wants of 
consumers or they must be rendered more efficiently either through 
other agencies or through some regulation of existing agencies. 

Instead of passing produce through so many hands on its 
way from the producer to the consumer, some believe that a more 
direct route could be devised. It is generally conceded that the 
individuals performing the aforesaid middleman functions have 
not revealed any conspicuous affluence in wealth. At the same 
time many have come to regard the machinery as too cumber- 
some and expensive. An actual increase in the use of direct 
shipments recently from local sources of supply to the retail 
agencies in the cities and even to the consumers themselves has 



780 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

invited added interest in the possibility of a further extension of 
direct shipments. 

The use of direct shipments implies, however, that the produce 
in question is graded according to quality so that it can be desig- 
nated and bargained for without previous inspection. This means 
that the functions of sorting and packing as they are performed 
by jobbers or city merchants must be undertaken and carried out 
in a satisfactory way by producers or local shippers. 

Direct shipment also implies that information is at hand so 
that buyers and sellers of a given kind of produce may be able 
to find each other and agree upon conditions of sale. In order 
to render information available so as to bring buyers and sellers 
together, some states such as Kansas and South Carolina have 
appointed state officials who are expected to act as clearing 
houses of information for this purpose. Generally, however, the 
producer or local shipper is left to build up his own direct trade 
in the cities by furnishing such quality and service as to com- 
mand a special demand for his produce, or the city retailer must 
find such local shippers. However, the building up of such 
trade also implies that the necessary confidence exists between 
the buyer and seller in matters pertaining to the sale. 

Again, direct shipment implies the availability of suitable and 
practicable shipping facilities. The present system of differential 
freight rates giving special rates in carload shipments is finan- 
cially profitable from the standpoint of railway economy and is 
favorable to the indirect jobbing method of handling produce. 
On the other hand, the relatively high level of express charges 
has not given encouragement to any appreciable amount of direct 
shipment of produce. The most momentous change recently 
in this direction is the extension of the parcels post. Already 
there has been a rapid increase in the movement of parcels on 
terms such as to greatly facilitate the direct shipment of produce. 

However, having given all the above-mentioned requirements, 
direct shipment also implies a willingness on the part of both 
seller and buyer to give attention to all the necessary details of 
such a system. This assumes vastly more than the great body 
of either producers or consumers have shown themselves willing 



JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 781 

to undertake. While, therefore, we may doubtless look for a 
noticeable extension in the use of direct shipments, such exten- 
sion is not likely to be carried beyond a minor fraction of the 
business as a whole. 

An important reason for such limitations lies in the fact that 
the direct method of shipment has not as yet dealt successfully 
with the problem of handling surplus stock. On the other hand, 
the very agencies using the direct method of shipment have had 
to resort to the use of the indirect jobbing or commission system 
in dealing with a surplus. 

While shipments direct from producers to consumers are 
likely to continue to cover a minor fraction of the total trade, 
the usefulness of such a system is not limited to the portion 
thus handled. A most important influence will be exerted in 
a sort of a regulative way on the methods of jobbers and com- 
mission men. In other words, the danger of a control of the 
supply by middlemen will be greatly minimized through the 
potential competition of a direct method of shipment. 

While the limitations of the system of direct shipments have 
thus been discussed in order to indicate more clearly the relation 
of jobbers and commission men to the handling of produce, it is 
interesting to notice how the organization of certain producers 
themselves for marketing purposes has enabled them to do a 
part of their own jobbing. The most notable example of this 
kind is that of the citrus fruit growers. Even these, however, 
with their highly perfected form of organization find it necessary 
to make use of the existing middleman machinery at the various 
primary markets. 

Finally, assuming the limitations of the direct method of ship- 
ments including that of the extension of producers' and con- 
sumers' organizations, will the commission and jobbing agencies 
render efficient service without any other checks than those of 
active and potential competition ? That something more is neces- 
sary is implied to the extent that public regulation has been ap- 
plied to the business of these middlemen. Such regulation has 
been applied in two ways. In the case of the commission busi- 
ness, state, regulation has been provided in some instances, as 



782 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

in Minnesota and New York, compelling commission merchants 
to be licensed and bonded and subjecting their accounts to 
inspection by state officials in case of complaint from local ship- 
pers. The problem suggested in this connection is whether it is 
desirable and practicable to extend the regulation of commission 
business so that the accounts of such firms are inspected regularly 
in some such manner as that applied to banking institutions. The 
same problem arises in connection with the storing of surplus 
stock by jobbing or other agencies. In the latter case the pub- 
lic interest is affected not only by the possibility of abuses such 
as the misrepresentation of storage goods as if they were fresh, 
but also by the extent to which a concentration of surplus stock 
may lead to a control of the supply. 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 

By C. W. Thompson 

(Reprinted from Bulletin No. 132 of the Minnesota Agricultural 
Experiment Station) 

SUMMARY 

COUNTRY merchants were unable to reach the primary 
markets through any other avenue than that of the com- 
mission man so long as the conditions of shipment involved 
great hazard. 

As improvements in transportation and refrigerator service di- 
minished the risks of handling, jobbers found inducement to enter 
the primary markets and buy outright from local country dealers. 

The growth of jobbing has now practically displaced the han- 
dling of eggs on commission in all Western primary markets 
except during periods of falling prices. 

In recent years certain localities have developed a system 
of marketing eggs directly to city retailers without the aid of 
middlemen. The success of such direct shipments has been 
mainly conditioned upon the ability to create and maintain a 
special market for high-grade quality. 

While the net margin on which jobbing is being done is only 
one-third or one-fourth of what it was ten or fifteen years ago, 
the gross margin has been kept unnecessarily large because of 
losses in candling, sorting, and repacking — mainly due to the 
M case-count " policy of purchasing eggs in the local towns. On 
the other hand, the cost of storing has been reduced through 
economies from increased volume of business, especially by a 
saving on loans and insurance. 

Cold storage lessens fluctuations in prices at different seasons 
and renders a high-class product available to consumers during 

783 



;84 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

periods of scarcity. At the same time it suggests the danger of 
a possible control of the market — a danger seemingly less omi- 
nous where several channels between producers and consumers 
are afforded by the direct method. 

The evil of selling storage eggs as fresh points to the need 
of legislation placing public cold-storage plants under government 
regulation and control. 

THE EARLY METHOD OF EGG-MARKETING 

The early method of marketing eggs from the farm was to 
bring them to the country merchant, who received certain farm 
products in trade for groceries, dry-goods, or other wares for sale 
in the store. This method proved very helpful to the average 
farmer under pioneer conditions. Aside from the returns of the 
grain crop in the fall, there was as a rule no income forthcoming 
during the different seasons of the year except what could be 
secured in trade for butter and eggs or the occasional sale of live 
stock. This advantage was especially apparent during years of 
partial or complete crop failure resulting from hail, rust, or the 
ravages of the grasshopper or chinch bug. Many a family in 
the Northwest has thus seen its cash crop swept away in a few 
moments and has been forced to tide over to the next season 
by limiting the expenditures of the household to the meager 
returns from eggs and butter. 

This method of egg-marketing was also helpful to the country 
merchant because his trade was limited mainly to farmers, and 
sales had to be made on long-time credit, awaiting the returns 
of the fall crop. In the event of failure in the fields, it was 
necessary to extend credit till the following season. Because of 
the prevalence of long-time credit to the farmer, it was necessary 
for the merchant to adjust his obligations to the wholesaler or 
jobber by means of loans from a local bank or with the dealers 
themselves. 

To the extent, however, that farmers brought eggs or butter 
to the store the merchant had for a time the benefit of almost 
a cash transaction. The shipment of butter and eggs brought 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 78s 

money returns without appreciable delay. This is an important 
reason why the country merchant catered to the egg-and-butter 
trade. Another motive also prompted the merchant to deal in 
farm products. He soon realized that farmers were prone to 
make practically all purchases at one store, and that the choice 
of a store depended mainly upon what the farmer regarded as 
the best market for his produce. 

Competition between merchants for the farmer's trade stimu- 
lated them to make as favorable quotations as possible. The 
merchant gradually became accustomed to this showing on the 
egg-and-butter business, however, and did not expect any direct 
gain from this source. To him the great gain was indirect. The 
merchant was, of course, running the store for the sake of a 
profit, but he was compelled to regard the handling of eggs not 
as a business in itself but as a means to other business. Taking 
in eggs and butter meant selling goods from the store. 

It was the sales of merchandise that became the source of 
profit. The prices charged for different kinds of goods were 
made so high that the resulting gains brought full return to the 
merchant for his trouble and risk in handling the farmer's 
produce. The distribution of these profits among different 
classes of merchandise had to be made according to "what the 
traffic would bear." Only a small margin was possible on certain 
staple articles such as granulated sugar, flour, kerosene, and 
coffee. The highest percentages of gain were therefore applied 
at varying rates on other classes of goods the values of which 
were not so well known to the consumer. 

Attention has thus far been called to certain advantages of 
the early method of egg-marketing both to the farmer and to the 
country merchant. Such a marketing agency was sufficient in 
itself to the extent that the local market was large enough for 
the unloading of the farmer's product. The very existence of 
this sort of business between the farmer and the merchant 
on any considerable scale, however, gave rise to the need of a 
class of dealers elsewhere who could receive shipments of farm 
produce from the country merchants on practically a cash basis. 
Recognizing the opportunity afforded by this need, certain men 



786 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

established themselves at the more important centers of trade 
for the purpose of handling products such as eggs and butter. 
What at one time proved to be the most advantageous method 
of marketing eggs locally both for the farmer and country 
merchant also offered advantages to a certain class of dealers 
in the large cities. In other words, the very existence of the 
kind of egg-marketing made necessary locally because of the 
status of the early farmer and country merchant also made 
necessary a certain type of middleman in the leading marts of 
trade. In order to appreciate the position and function of the 
middleman agency thus rendered indispensable, it will be neces- 
sary to revert to the local communities and analyze more carefully 
the nature of the handling of poultry and eggs by the farmer 
and country merchant. 

The most striking fact relating to the care of poultry and 
eggs under the earlier type is the utter lack of attention given 
to it. During the major portion of the year the flock of chickens 
was left to take care of itself. In the same way that cattle were 
allowed to graze over vast stretches of free land with no inter- 
ruption except that of the annual "round-up," so, too, the 
chickens of the early farm roamed at will, gathering food where- 
ever their scratching brought results and depositing eggs wherever 
surroundings suggested a minimum of disturbance. The hennery 
was a place of last resort, sought out as the seat of refuge against 
the invasion of wild animals or inclement weather. From fall 
until spring the accumulation of filth often went on unabated. 
In places momentary relief may have been afforded by a cover- 
ing of straw. The situation as a whole, however, is not inaccu- 
rately reflected by saying that frontier farmers rarely took the 
time to clean their chicken houses. In such a place, with poor 
ventilation and poor light, the fowls were huddled together, 
pending the cold season, and handed a ration of feed the quan- 
tity and quality of which were determined by the "leavings" 
conveniently at hand and unfit for other uses rather than by the 
needs of the poultry. The limited attention given to the care of 
poultry devolved upon those who presumably had time to spare. 
It was not regarded as a man's job, but was usually left to the 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 787 

housewife or children. The time for gathering eggs was usually 
determined according to the needs of the household, and then 
it was often sufficient to bring enough eggs for the purpose in 
hand. A thorough search covering all the premises was generally 
left as an important part of the preparation for a trip to town. 

At such irregular times as it was deemed convenient to go to 
the local market the egg basket was taken along. The exposure 
en route varied with the season of the year. By far the larger 
portion of eggs was sold during the spring and summer months, 
however, and little or no thought was given to the care of eggs 
on the road except precautions to prevent breakage. 

The country merchant received the eggs in bulk at a flat rate 
per dozen. According to this method "an egg was an egg," and 
one dozen was treated on a par with another. One farmer might 
be methodical in his habits, gathering his eggs with regularity 
and bringing them to town at certain intervals. Another farmer 
might be entirely devoid of method, coming to town at uncertain 
intervals and bringing eggs the quantity and quality of which 
would be equally uncertain. 

Aside from the small volume of eggs sold locally, no attempt 
whatever was made by the merchant to distinguish between the 
different lots of eggs prepared for shipment. He had neither 
knowledge of how to discriminate nor facilities that would assist 
in so doing. On the other hand, his own quarters were seldom 
if ever fit for the storage of eggs pending shipment. Some cor- 
ner in the back of the store in close proximity to a barrel of fish, 
a stock of tobacco or cheese, often served the purpose. Shipment 
would then be made whenever deemed expedient in the light 
of the supply on hand, the merchant's time, and the facilities 
for transport. 

In preparing shipments the merchant resorted to methods very 
different from those in vogue to-day. One way was to pack the 
eggs in oats, bran, shorts, or salt, in wooden shoe boxes. As 
many as one hundred dozen were placed in each box. Another 
common method was to saw a barrel in two at the center and 
equip each tub-shaped half with rope handles. The eggs were 
then dumped in without even packing material and were left 



788 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

uncovered on top. The latter method of packing eggs for ship- 
ment from country stores was very prevalent during the seventies. 
It is true that wooden cases with fillers were known at that time, 
but the price, ranging from one dollar to one dollar and twenty- 
five cents per case, was so high as to be well-nigh prohibitive. 
The price was lowered during the later seventies, however, and 
from then on the cases with fillers came into more general use. 
The early system of packing, together with the rough handling 
in common box cars in transit, caused a great deal of breakage. 
When the egg shipment reached the central market, therefore, 
it was generally in a deplorable condition. 

The reader may be led to wonder what sort of a middleman 
from the central market could be induced to deal in eggs thus 
offered by the country merchant. Who was looking for a product 
representing widely different grades and still more varied histories, 
delayed at uncertain intervals on the farm and in the country 
store as well as during the period in transit ? The method of 
handling eggs convenient at that time for the country merchant 
and the farmer attracted just one group of middlemen in the 
large cities, and they did not buy the eggs outright but handled 
them for the country merchant, receiving a certain percentage of 
the gross returns. When the country merchant desired to get 
beyond the local market, he found that this was the only class 
of middlemen in the large cities who were willing to handle the 
kind of product he wanted to sell. These middlemen did not 
care, however, to take the risk of buying the country merchant's 
eggs outright. It is thus evident that the only outlet for eggs 
beyond the local market during that early period was through 
the medium of the commission man. 

It is estimated that the unnecessary waste of eggs in the 
United States at present due to poor quality is at least ij per 
cent. The loss from this source during earlier years must 
have been very much greater. It should also be remembered 
that most of the eggs are shipped during April and May. The 
large amount available at that time tended under the earlier 
method to depress the price to its lowest figure. With present- 
day facilities for storage unknown, few of the eggs could be 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 789 

carried over to a later season. A market thus overstocked with an 
ungraded product naturally tended to a low price. The high 
percentage of waste depressed the market quotations still more. 
The price of eggs in the early eighties illustrated this tendency. 
At that time many Minnesota farmers sold eggs in the spring 
at six cents a dozen and even less, while in some instances they 
could not be marketed at all. 

During those early years the risk involved in handling eggs 
was very great. In disposing of eggs commission men were 
constantly confronted with complaints from city retailers on 
account of the quality of the eggs furnished. On the other hand, 
the country merchant was dissatisfied because of the low price 
received. The income of the commission man varied, of course, 
with the number of eggs handled. It was to his advantage, 
therefore, to increase the volume of business as much as possible. 
To do this he tried to hold the trade of the country merchant 
already sending consignments and to induce other merchants to 
give him their shipments. 

The stress of competition between commission men often led 
to grave abuses. On initial shipments from a country store 
returns would sometimes be forthcoming which looked better 
than the average. Some commission man had perhaps padded 
the returns in order to secure trade. Later, however, on some 
large shipment from the same source the returns would perhaps 
be unusually low, due perhaps to a high percentage of waste or 
partly perhaps to dishonesty in the commission man. In any 
event the returns were so often characterized in this way 'that 
country merchants and country people in general came in later 
years to distrust the average commission man. Nevertheless, it 
must be noted that this was the only agency available in the 
larger cities to take shipments of eggs from country merchants 
under the early method. The fact that abuses crept in should 
not blind one to the essential need of this agency under 
the conditions. 

Most of the eggs received on consignment by commission men 
were sold to city retailers. The commission man had to pick 
over the eggs, sorting out the ?' breaks " and candling what 



790 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

was left. All eggs salable to city retailers were of one grade — ; 
" a good merchantable egg." There was no market at all 
for V seconds " or " cracks." Certain dealers stored quantities of 
eggs in ice-houses, a kind of storage unthought of to-day. The 
presence of refrigerator service between the Twin Cities and the 
East rendered shipments practicable over the trunk lines, but 
there was no refrigerator service to Minneapolis or St. Paul from 
outlying points in the state. Local shipments were made in 
ordinary box cars and were subjected to the delays characteristic 
of early freight service. The percentage of loss on shipments 
east was very great. By the time a consignment of eggs had 
reached an Eastern market, the breakage and deterioration had 
become appalling. The Eastern commission men came to look 
upon these eggs as an inferior grade of goods and habitually 
exercised wanton carelessness in handling them. They seemed 
to reflect the spirit that it was not worth while to be careful since 
the eggs were not worth much anyway. In any event they would, 
of course, charge up losses from breakage and deterioration to 
the owner of the consignment. What the commission man wanted 
was to handle a big volume of business, since his commission of 
one cent per dozen or from 5 per cent to 10 per cent on the 
gross amount handled varied with the amount of traffic. The 
more he rushed his work, the more bulk he could get off his 
hands at a given expense. To him the loss in commission on 
breakage of deteriorated eggs was not sufficient to stimulate 
careful handling. In other words, it paid better from the stand- 
point of the commission man to seek volume of traffic and lay 
the blame for losses on forces already notoriously at fault. 

As already stated, there were certain classes of dealers during 
the early period who attempted to store eggs until the season of 
relative scarcity. The ice-houses used were necessarily damp, since 
the later system of pipes or conduits providing for air circulation 
was practically unknown. A successful system of egg storage 
demands proper conditions both as to temperature and humidity. 
It is now held that the best results are secured where the tem- 
perature is kept at 29J Fahrenheit. If the air is appreciably 
colder the eggs will freeze. If the temperature rises above 29I 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 791 

the eggs will not keep so well. As regards humidity, the ideal 
figure is held to be 74 . When the air is drier than this it will 
hasten shrinkage. If it is more damp the eggs tend to become 
moldy. The extreme dampness of the old ice-house system of 
storage together with its poorly regulated conditions of temper- 
ature inevitably led to great losses, the risk of holding eggs was 
correspondingly increased, and few dealers ventured to store any 
considerable number. This necessarily reacted upon the condi- 
tions of the market. It meant that the great bulk of eggs would 
be unloaded during the spring and summer months when eggs 
were relatively plentiful and that the price of eggs during these 
seasons would be correspondingly low. It also meant that there 
would be a dearth of eggs during the winter season when eggs 
were relatively scarce and when no extensive reserve fund was 
available to draw on. The resulting high price during the winter 
season stood out in marked contrast with the ruinously low prices 
characterizing the season of plenty. 

We are now in a position to appreciate the general effect of 
the early mechanism of egg-marketing. Our analysis thus far 
has shown that the farmer had no inducement under the early 
method to furnish a superior quality. On the other hand, the 
early system put a premium on inferior quality furnished from the 
farm. The system in vogue placed the farmer who was careless 
or dishonest on a par with men who were reliable and painstaking 
in the care of the products furnished. We have also seen how 
the country merchant was induced to adopt this early method. 
Taken by itself egg-handling to him meant a direct loss. Used as a 
means to other business, however, it was found profitable. Looked 
at from the standpoint of the present-day accountant, the egg 
business of the country merchant would undoubtedly be charged 
up mainly to advertising. The country merchant wanted to hold 
his customers. Even though he knew that a number of eggs in 
a farmer's basket were unfit for use, he would nevertheless take 
them in at the market price in order to retain the good will of 
the farmer. The country merchant also wanted to attract new 
customers. His practice of paying full price regardless of source, 
therefore, became general. To the farmer it became virtuous to 



792 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

be shrewd and deceptive, while to the country merchant there 
was considerable virtue in smiling approvingly on the wares of a 
patron even though the merchant knew the goods were delivered 
under false pretenses. Likewise the opportunity for questionable 
practices was not lacking in the case of the commission man. 
He was far enough away to feel immune from the surveillance 
of interested parties. It was so easy to lay the blame for losses 
upon forces over which he had no control. He could notify the 
owner of the consignment that the shipment had been subjected 
to unusual breakage from careless handling or to considerable 
deterioration from delay in transit or exposure to extreme 
weather, and it left the country merchant with little recourse. The 
same commission man had perhaps won the good opinion of the 
merchant on an initial shipment by reporting an account of sales 
showing very favorable returns. Moreover, it was usually the 
irresponsible and unscrupulous commission man who reported 
most deftly to country merchants on initial shipments. The 
honest commission man who gave accurate returns was accordingly 
misjudged, while subsequent consignments from country mer- 
chants would be billed to the man whose padded returns had 
created the most favorable impression. It thus became a practice 
among commission men to report inflated returns on the initial 
consignments from country merchants and exercise ingenuity 
in making up for this advertising by judicious juggling on 
subsequent shipments. 

Enough has been written to reveal the inevitable tendency under 
the early method of egg-marketing. Under this method we have 
seen how men were placed in a new set of relations and were 
trying their best to succeed in the new environment. They used 
such power as they had in running the new machinery. If they 
found that what we consider immoral qualities made the machinery 
run better, it was but natural that they should try to use them. 

In this connection it is well to remember that no device or 
mechanism can be said to be best in an absolute sense. No 
method of egg-marketing is best for all times and conditions. 
Any method may be best provided we apply it to times and con- 
ditions which it fits. The fact, however, that times and conditions 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 793 

are constantly changing suggests the inevitable effect of trying to 
perpetuate a given method for any great length of time. While it 
is important, therefore, to appreciate the merits of the early method 
of egg-marketing as applied to the pioneer conditions through 
which Minnesota passed some decades ago, it is fully as important 
to note the changes in method adopted wherever communities 
have successfully readjusted themselves to changed conditions. It 
is to a study of changes from the early method of egg-marketing 
that the reader's attention is directed in the following section. 

THE INDIRECT METHOD OF EGG-MARKETING 

So long as the farmer was able to get all the things he wanted 
by trading his products at the country store, the early method of 
egg-marketing proved fairly satisfactory. As soon, however, as 
he began to want other things than those for sale by the country 
merchant, he began to realize the limitations of his local market. 
It tied him down to the barter method afforded at the country 
store. It meant a kind of trading restricted to the wares and 
terms of the country merchant. Only when several local stores 
were bidding for the farmer's butter and eggs, did the stress of 
competition tend to increase the exchange value of these products 
and widen the range of choice open to the farmer. 

The situation was somewhat different when the farmer arranged 
for the disposal of his fall crop. The grain was sold at the local 
elevator for cash, and the money thus secured enabled the farmer 
to pay his taxes and engage in other transactions involving the 
need of general purchasing power. There was a certain inde- 
pendence of movement acquired through the ownership of money 
which appealed strongly to the individualistic temperament of the 
average farmer. The amount of freedom thus acquired was very 
limited, however, for the average pioneer. Whatever money was 
available from the sale of grain often was needed for taxes, inter- 
est on loans, and partial payments on indebtedness. As already 
stated, the pressure of these fixed charges was especially severe 
during seasons of crop failure, and it was then that farmers came 
to realize the value and need of other sources of income. 



794 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Neither returns from grain at the elevator nor the trading in 
farm products at the store continued for any great length of time 
to meet the growing needs of the farmer. He saw the increasing 
uncertainty of a crop income and became more and more res- 
tive under a relation of continued dependence upon the country 
merchant. 

Thirty years ago it would have been difficult to foretell how 
relief was to be afforded. The farmers themselves were scarcely 
in a position to change the system. They were, as a rule, too 
poor to undertake any other method. From their standpoint the 
facilities already available were the best they could afford to have. 
Struggling almost empty-handed against the powerful forces of 
nature, they needed every resource at their command in order to 
succeed in the arts of production, and had but little means and 
feeble effort available for the improvement of marketing facilities. 

The farmers were also at a disadvantage because of undevel- 
oped facilities for transportation. A prompt and adequate railway 
service is not afforded the sparsely settled frontier community. 
From the standpoint of railway economy it does not pay to fur- 
nish it. Nevertheless, it is to the interest of agencies of railway 
and water transportation to improve the machinery of conveyance 
for the territory they serve as rapidly as the growth of traffic 
permits. Improvement in the quality of service is installed wher- 
ever it results in additional business. If, however, the members 
of a given community do not utilize the means at hand, the 
managers of transportation are likely to withdraw the unused 
service and thus adapt the facilities to the effective demands of 
the people. This has been especially noticeable in smaller places 
where the outgoing channels of transit have gradually become 
adjusted to a backwardness of conditions in general. 

The dependence of community life upon its facilities for 
transportation is vital in the development of marketing. Outside 
buyers experience insuperable difficulty in securing from back- 
ward localities the quantity wanted of a given product at the time 
it is wanted. Other communities further developed and with up- 
to-date systems of transportation will attract buyers because of 
the opportunity to secure in sufficient amounts a kind of product 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 795 

which the consumers are anxious to get and because the organ- 
ization of means of conveyance renders it possible to bring such 
products to their destination without delay and with proper care 
in transit. The part played by the organization of the transporta- 
tion service is fundamental, therefore, in the development of the 
marketing facilities for any community. 

We are now in a position to understand how it was the 
gradual improvement of transportation facilities that paved the 
way for the kind of relief the farmer was seeking. This was 
accomplished in two ways. It made possible an expansion and 
reorganization of the local market. It also led to the establish- 
ment of better connections with the primary markets and to the 
rise, in later years, of a new form of organization which has 
greatly modified the farmer's local market. 

The first relief to the farmer of the Northwest from the lim- 
itations imposed by his relations to the country merchant did not 
come through changes in methods of egg-marketing. The old 
method of barter and its consequent dependence upon the country 
store continued in the marketing of eggs long after the farmer 
had devised another means of improvement. Moreover, the un- 
certainty of a one-crop system was not in itself sufficient to cause 
farmers to turn to other lines of work. It was a new difficulty 
which had gradually arisen and which compelled the farmer to 
mend his ways. Large numbers would undoubtedly have con- 
tinued in the old and beaten path, facing the uncertainty of the 
fall crop as well as the limitations of the country-store market, 
if they had not confronted the new difficulty. As the land be- 
came relatively scarcer and therefore higher in price, the farmer 
found at the same time that his method of continuous cropping 
had led to the spreading of obnoxious weeds as well as to a de- 
pletion of the fertility of the soil and to a consequent falling off 
in the yield per acre. Such a method of abusing the land could 
not continue. Only after this had gone on for some time, how- 
ever, and after the pressure had become severe, was the farmer 
compelled through stern need to attempt some form of readjust-, 
ment. It was under conditions such as these that the farmer 
sought relief by resorting to live-stock farming. 



796 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The need of keeping cattle in order to continue grain farm- 
ing successfully tended to direct the farmer's attention toward 
problems pertaining to the price return of grain and that of 
the live-stock industry. The effect is seen in attempts to or- 
ganize co-operative elevators and creameries, while the revolt 
against the country merchant is revealed in numerous ventures 
to establish co-operative stores. 

In the meantime, certain forces were slowly being set in mo- 
tion which were destined in time to alter radically the methods 
of egg-marketing. A steady improvement in the agencies for 
transportation and the perfecting of a dependable system of cold 
storage led to far-reaching results. The former paved the way 
for a widening in the area of the market. The latter made 
possible an extension of the market in time as well as in space. 

It is important to appreciate the significance of this constant 
widening of the market. Where buying and selling are confined 
within narrow limits, the price level is subject to sudden and 
violent fluctuations. Every widening of the field makes for 
greater stability and steadiness in the level of prices. As im- 
provements in transportation took place, they had the effect of 
bringing a larger and larger number of buyers and sellers within 
the range of a given market and thus made for stability in price. 
The perfection of cold storage made possible considerable buying 
and selling for future delivery as well as for present needs. 
People were thus permitted to draw upon large areas for the 
supply of a given product and to equalize the conditions of sup- 
ply the year around by transferring from the surplus seasons to 
those of relative scarcity. We have noted how the commission 
man was the sole intermediary for shipments to primary markets 
during earlier years. As the field of buying and selling gradually 
widened, however, with improvements in transportation and cold 
storage, and as the resulting conditions of marketing became 
relatively more secure, another class of middlemen from the 
larger centers of trade were attracted toward the business of 
dealing in farm produce. The method adopted was that of send- 
ing agents into country towns for the purpose of buying certain 
products including eggs, poultry, and butter for city shipment 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 797 

and at the same time selling other classes of goods such as fruits 
to be shipped to the locality from the primary market. The 
transactions thus carried on through travelling agents were ordi- 
narily made with country merchants. Each agent carried a draft 
book from the firm he represented in the city. He would buy 
farm products such as eggs and butter from the country merchant 
and pay the price with a draft on his company. In order to safe- 
guard the shipment of the farm products purchased, provision 
was made so that the country merchant could not cash the 
agent's draft unless it was accompanied by a bill of lading show- 
ing that the produce had been shipped to its proper destination. 
To this end a statement was printed across the face of the draft 
somewhat as follows : " Original shipping receipt positively must 
be attached to draft, otherwise it will not be honored." The ter- 
ritory of each agent usually included from twenty to thirty towns so 
situated along a railway that all the places could be visited every 
week or fortnight. Where men travelled thus from one commu- 
nity to another, it would not have been possible to cover expenses 
if the buying or selling had been limited to some one commodity. 
By dealing in a wide variety of products, some for purchase and 
others for sale, the field work could be carried on at a compara- 
tively small expense on each of the various products handled. 

This system of cash buying was started through agents from 
the Twin Cities more than twenty years ago. The business has 
been constantly growing until we now find cash-buying firms 
with headquarters in the Twin Cities, Duluth, and in a number 
of the smaller cities such as Alexandria, Hutchinson, Paynesville, 
and Willmar, whose agents visit practically every community in 
Minnesota. These firms differ among themselves both as to the 
variety of products in which they deal and as to their method of 
handling these products. The firms are all alike, however, in 
that each of them does business on a fairly large scale. All of 
these firms cover relatively wide fields both in their buying and 
in their selling, and for the purpose of this discussion will be 
designated as cash-buying firms. 

In order to appreciate the nature of the egg business carried 
on by cash-buying firms, let us take as one of our types a firm 



; 9 8 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



having its headquarters in one of the larger cities and engaging 
in both wholesale and retail business. Its transactions will in- 
clude the handling of perhaps a dozen carloads of eggs daily. 
A large number of regular agents in the field provide for most of 
the buying. Additional purchases come through creamery men, 
country merchants, and wagon men or special travelling agents 
who are added to the force of regular agents during the months 
of heaviest buying for cold storage. Such a firm will also make 
purchases from time to time from other cash-buying firms. 
Most of the smaller purchases are shipped in to headquarters 
in less than carload lots directly from country towns. A certain 
day each week is selected as shipping day from each town. The 
exact day chosen is usually determined in the light of the kind 
of refrigerator-car service available. Egg purchases from the 
different country stores are assembled at the depot in time for 
shipment. In some instances the eggs will be candled locally 
and classified accordingly. Most of the time, however, no attempt 
of this sort will be made at the local station. The eggs, packed in 
cases, are then sent to headquarters in the city. Here all eggs are 
candled by experts whose knowledge, experience, and equipment 
enable them to classify eggs far more accurately than can be done 
in the local towns. While the average quality of eggs received at 
present is far superior to what it was five or ten years ago, ship- 
ments of eggs are still received in such condition that considerable 
room is left for improvement. The candling test of three ship- 
ments of eggs received by one large cash-buying firm from country 
towns during the month of September reveals the following record : 

GRADES FOUND IN THREE SHIPMENTS, SHOWN AS 
PERCENTAGES 





Shipment 


Firsts 


Seconds 


Cracks 


Rots 


A 


6 7 
73 
86 


19.O 
10.0 

7-5 


8.0 

10.0 

i-5 


6 


B 


7 
5 


C 







The above eggs had been candled by country merchants and 
were reported in first-class condition. They were shipped in 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 799 

refrigerator cars and candled at the headquarters of the firm 
within four hours after arrival. The particular shipments referred 
to above are not cited as examples of average local candling. 
They show how necessary it is, however, to subject shipments to 
rigid inspection on arrival at the primary markets. 

After all eggs have been candled and graded, several methods 
of disposal are open to the firm. Large numbers of "first-class " 
eggs may be sold directly to retailers, first-class hotels, or restau- 
rants. " Seconds " may go to second-class eating houses, inferior 
retail firms, and bakeries. The last-named class of establish- 
ments usually buys the "cracks" or "checks." Eggs classified 
below the above-mentioned grades are not marketable for food 
purposes at all and are therefore worked over into some manu- 
factured product. 

Instead of selling in small amounts to retailers, the firm may 
prepare carload lots and ship to other primary markets. It is in 
this way that the surplus egg supply of the region is distributed 
over other parts of the country. Such shipments go east to 
Chicago or New York, to southern cities, or to primary markets 
on the Pacific Coast. In recent years an important outlet 
for such shipments has been afforded at Winnipeg and other 
Canadian cities. 

The extent of carload shipments has now assumed important 
dimensions. Egg trains are speeded with dispatch to the leading 
primary markets of the East. Whether eggs are to be sold in 
small lots directly to retailers or indirectly through city wagon 
men or shipped in carload lots to other primary markets depends 
at any given time upon the state of the local market as com- 
pared with that at other points. This balancing of sales between 
local and distant buyers tends to equalize price conditions over 
large areas. 

Still another method of disposing of the eggs is open to cash- 
buying firms. This consists in either holding the eggs and plac- 
ing them in cold storage or selling them to other parties who 
make a business of cold storage. In either case the effect is 
to remove the supply from the stock immediately available and 
to enlarge the reserves for seasons of relative scarcity. To the 



8oo READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

extent that the supplies for the time being are thus diminished, 
present prices will tend to be raised. After due allowance has 
been made for possible deterioration during the period of stor- 
age, for interest on the capital invested, and for the rental 
charge, the tendency will be to place in storage rather than sell 
for present use so long as the prospective future price offers 
greater inducements than present market quotations. Here again 
will be a balancing between two distinct markets. In the same 
way that the cash buyer weighs the relative advantages of selling 
in small amounts to local retailers or shipping in carload lots to 
other primary markets, so, too, will he weigh the comparative 
worth of sales in the present and sales at some future time. 
Moreover, the tendency toward equalization in prices between 
future and present uses will also be operative in the same way 
that prices tend toward equality over large areas. 

If the business of trading in eggs is to have the advantages 
of the wide field made possible by shipments to other primary 
markets and by storage for future sales, inducements must be at 
hand so that men will find it profitable to perform the middle- 
man functions necessary in order to make these fields accessible. 
The interests of both farmer and consumer demand that the egg 
supply shall be distributed between local and distant markets 
and between present and future uses. Both kinds of distribution 
are necessary in order to prevent violent and wide fluctuations 
in prices. 

The type of cash-buying firm referred to above represents the 
larger companies which sell both at retail and wholesale and 
which also store supplies for the future market. Such firms 
may also enter into special agreements with parties to deliver 
eggs at some future date at a stipulated price based on present 
quotations together with charges for rentals and interest and 
customary losses from deterioration. Where this is done, the un- 
certainties of future price disturbances are practically eliminated 
for both buyer and seller. 

The other types of cash-buying firms do not attempt to exer- 
cise all the different functions enumerated above but rather limit 
their work to some particular line of activity. One firm may buy 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 801 

from country merchants on the basis of mailed quotations which 
are good on shipments made from local towns before specified 
dates. In this way purchases are often made without the aid 
of the field agent. The shipments thus received may be sold 
largely to the retail trade or to hotels and restaurants. 

Another type of the cash-buying firm is seen in companies 
ordinarily identified with the business of cold storage. These 
are found in both larger and smaller cities and do their buying 
through field agents or mailed quotations or, perhaps, through a 
combination of these methods. Their sales, however, are usually 
confined to carload lots which are shipped to other primary mar- 
kets. The smaller storage plants usually make their purchases 
largely for the purpose of immediate sale, while larger firms may 
also hold considerable quantities of eggs for a future market. 

The far-reaching importance of cold storage in widening the 
market in time as well as in space demands further emphasis. 
Few appreciate the extent to which the conditions of egg supply 
have been adjusted to the needs of the consumer at all seasons 
of the year by means of the storage system. Some there are 
whose limited and imperfect knowledge of conditions lead them 
to urge that cold storage should be abolished entirely. They have 
perhaps become familiar with certain abuses of the system, cer- 
tain attempts to control supply and thus control prices. It may 
be, too, that experience with eggs kept in storage has revealed 
a deterioration in quality that has inspired general distrust as 
to the efficiency of the system. Both of these evils have un- 
doubtedly been operative. It is idle, however, to think of dis- 
pensing with the use of a valuable mechanism such as this 
simply because of the possibility of its abuse or because of its 
earlier imperfections. 

Methods of cold storage have been so far improved that eggs 
may be kept in good condition from spring until the follow- 
ing winter. Vast quantities are stored during April and May 
and furnish the reserves during months of relative scarcity. 
Diagram I on page 802 shows the relative numbers of eggs 
taken in to storage during the surplus months and the number 
going out of storage each month as indicated in the records of a 



8.02 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



typical cold-storage plant. From this it appears that the greater 
part of the surplus is stored during April and May and a smaller 
portion during June, whereas the movement of eggs out of cold 
storage takes place mainly from October until February. 



c-i J 

fc < 
o o 

K fa 

Cu o 


1910 

ii fc" & a £? y> cL -^ ^ » 


1911 


1912 

1-3 fa 


25 

24 

23 

22 

21 

20 

19 

18 

17 

16 

15 

14 

13 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 






















































































































































k^ 




















































5 
* i 












i 


\ 

\ 
\ 














* % 


i 
i 


1 




\ 






\ 
\ 

< 
















/ 
/ 


t 
\ 
\ 














\ 

\ 












i 




\ 
\ 
\ 


















j 








i 
i 

i 




\ 
V* 


1 
















r 




V' 








1 




\ \ 


/ 
/ 
f 
















T 
T 


iken in 


y/ 

























Diagram I, Relative Number of Eggs taken in and out of Storage during the 
Leading Months of a Two-Year Period, by a Typical Cold-Storage Plant 



The effect of this distribution of supplies is seen in the less- 
ened fluctuations of. prices between the various seasons since 
cold-storage methods were adopted. Previous to 1900 we find 
wide variations in price for the different seasons, whereas recent 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 803 

statistics show a tendency toward greater uniformity in prices the 
year around. 

The average price per dozen of fresh eggs in New York dur- 
ing the surplus seasons of the period 1 880-1 890 was 15 j cents 
as compared with 17I for the period 1 900-1910, as shown by 
Mr. Urner, in his testimony before the United States Senate 
Committee on Manufactures. During the seasons of scarcity the 
average price during the former period was 26| cents and during 
the latter period, 29! cents. Regarding the last-named figures, 
Mr. Urner declares, however, that the average price of eggs in 
the season of scarcity would also be lower in 1900-19 10 as com- 
pared with that of 1 880-1 890 if we take the average of freshly 
gathered and storage eggs. The conclusion that fluctuations in 
egg prices have been lessened since the introduction of cold- 
storage facilities has also been reached by the Massachusetts 
Commission appointed in 191 1 to investigate the cold storage of 
food. From a study of the Boston market for the above periods 
they find that the average of the extreme fluctuations measured 
from the highest point to the lowest point in each year was a 
little lower for 1900-19 10 than for 18 80 -1890. A similar con- 
clusion was also reached in the investigation of the federal gov- 
ernment as revealed in the report of the Secretary of Agriculture 
for 191 1. 

While fluctuations have thus been lessened, it appears that the 
annual price level of eggs during the decade 1900-19 10 was a 
little higher than during the decade 1 880-1 890. This fact is 
explained by the Massachusetts Commission as due to certain 
other peculiar conditions affecting the egg market and is not to 
be attributed to the existence of cold storage. 

While improvements have thus been made in the distribution 
of the egg supply, the real significance of the change has not 
become apparent to the average consumer. The questionable 
condition of eggs stored under the early method seems to have 
created a prejudice against cold-storage eggs which it is difficult 
to remove even after the system of storage has been radically 
changed. At no time was this prejudice more apparent than 
during the general crash in egg prices in the spring of 19 10. 



804 - READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Storage eggs were then sold with difficulty at one-half the price 
paid for fresh eggs. 

With modern methods and facilities for cold storage no apol- 
ogy needs to be made for the condition of the stored product. 
The large amount put away during early spring is stored under 
most favorable circumstances. The hen is usually in good phys- 
ical condition and the eggs are surrounded by favorable climatic 
influences in the various ^movements from the nest to the storage 
plant. The situation would be very different if storage were 
attempted to any considerable extent during the summer months. 
The hens are then often in a semi-feverish condition and are 
disposed to set. The eggs are exposed to excessive heat at every 
stage of their movement to market. Presented in this condition 
for cold storage, the eggs have already undergone some change 
and cannot be stored as safely for any great length of time. 
The result is that when summer eggs are placed in storage they 
are usually taken out again in the early fall, whereas spring eggs 
are kept for later fall and winter trade. 

What has been stated thus far in regard to the merits of cold 
storage is not to be construed as a defense of those practices 
which aim to secure a control of supply. Wherever the avenues 
of distribution for any product are brought together into a few 
channels, attempts are apt to be made to dam up the supply, and 
to the extent that egg-storage is left to a few large firms such a 
situation may be developed. As a rule, however, attempts to 
" corner " a market do not succeed. While it is true that suc- 
cessful corners have been created in rare instances for brief 
periods, it is also true that the greatest attempts at corners in 
modern times failed utterly and resulted in the financial ruin 
of those who made the venture. To the extent that the rise of 
cold storage invites attempts of this sort it presents the same 
grave problems that have arisen in connection with the distribu- 
tive machinery for wheat and cotton. How evils of this character 
may best be minimized in the egg business presents a problem 
regarding which there are wide differences of opinion. Some 
would provide complete publicity from month to month regarding 
the number of eggs taken in and out of storage. To this end, a 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 805 

system of rigid public inspection has been advocated. It is held 
that such a provision would tend to discourage excessive concen- 
tration and at the same time prevent the holding of eggs beyond 
a safe time limit. On the other hand, there are those who main- 
tain that publicity is useless and that the only need in connection 
with our modern cold-storage system is to distinguish between 
fresh and storage eggs and frankly recognize the identity of each 
in the regular course of trade. By giving the cold-storage egg a 
grade of its own and selling it as such, it is held that the public 
will soon recognize its merits, as it has in the case of velvet chaff 
wheat, and that the resulting increase in demand will likewise 
gradually remove any marked disparity between its price and that 
of the standard grade. 

The above opinions reveal two distinct problems in connection 
with modern cold storage : one relating to a control of the supply, 
the other brought on by the tendency of certain jobbers and 
retailers to offer storage eggs in the market as fresh eggs. Both 
problems involve evils, the prevention of which should engage our 
serious attention. Neither of these difficulties should be permitted 
to impair the efficiency of our modern machinery of egg-marketing. 
Suggested remedies, which in the opinion of the writer may afford 
effective relief, are presented in a later section of this paper. 

Let us now summarize briefly the main headings discussed 
thus far. We have seen the restrictions and limitations of 
the early local market and the enlarged field afforded through 
the agency of the commission man. We have also noticed the 
further widening of the market in space and in time by means 
of improvements in facilities for transportation and cold storage. 
A study has been made of the types of cash-buying firms that 
have occupied this larger market. Their buying has been done 
mainly from country merchants either through travelling agents 
or local dealers, or through the use of mailed quotations. The 
shipments received have been handled and graded at the primary 
market. The part to be sold has either been sorted for local 
.retail trade or packed in carload lots for shipment to other 
primary markets, while portions to be held for a future market 
have been placed in cold storage. 



806 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

In the meantime, it is important to notice what has become 
of the commission man who stood as the sole intermediary during 
the initial widening of the market beyond the limits of the local 
community. As soon as the country merchant confronted the 
alternative of selling to cash-buying firms rather than shipping 
at his own risk to distant points, it did not take him long to 
make a choice. He preferred to sell outright and transfer the 
risks of shipment upon the buyer. The result was to force 
the commission man to enter the jobbing business and do his 
buying outright in order to get the trade of the country merchant. 
Because of such changes, the present cash-buying firms are 
largely made up of recruits who formerly purchased the farmers' 
products on a commission basis. We are now in a position to 
appreciate how the rise of the cash-buying firm has also brought 
about the passing of the commission man. Moreover, so complete 
a change has been wrought in this respect that little or no egg- 
buying by commission men is now attempted from the primary 
markets except at some eastern points which will be discussed 
later. The field which once attracted no other class of dealers 
than those who served as agents on a commission basis has now 
been surrendered to the activities of the modern jobber. As soon 
as improvements in transportation and cold storage had made the 
operations of the primary market relatively more safe, it was 
natural that such men should prefer to pre-empt the field outright. 
As jobbers they had themselves to account to rather than serve 
as agents for distant sellers. The business had become standard- 
ized to such an extent that men of integrity and ability could 
invest the necessary funds in the enterprise and make it pay. On 
the other hand, the irresponsible type of commission man that for- 
merly flourished had gradually been crowded out. In egg-buying 
he could not compete with the jobber who purchased outright. 

Nevertheless, there are market conditions under which com- 
mission business still tends to be encouraged as compared with 
jobbing. During a period of rising prices jobbing is encouraged 
and a commodity may pass through the hands of several jobbers 
before reaching the retailer, while during a period of falling 
prices the jobber is constrained to hold back. Where prices are 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 807 

fairly steady or on the rise, he buys f. o. b. at country points. 
If conditions change and prices begin to fall, he is likely to 
change his terms to f. o. b. for his primary market or cease to 
purchase outright, offering simply to accept shipments on com- 
mission. At such times, therefore, the commission business will 
increase. On the whole, however, and during the greater portion 
of the year the handling of most of the products on the farm has 
now become a merchandise business and is handled by jobbers. 

While the attitude of the jobber as a buyer varies with the 
trend of prices, his disposition to sell is likewise affected by 
market conditions. This was well illustrated by the flurry in the 
egg market which occurred in December, 191 2. Owing to un- 
expected weather changes at that time, an unusual increase of 
fresh eggs was placed on the market, and this caused no little 
uneasiness in the minds of those jobbers who were holding a 
considerable supply in cold storage. They realized the impor- 
tance of hastening the unloading of storage eggs. While whole- 
sale prices declined somewhat abruptly, the retailers did not lower 
their prices accordingly. This tended to prevent the jobber from 
disposing of his stock as rapidly as he otherwise would have 
done. His interests as well as those of the consumer were there- 
fore adversely affected by the action of the retailers. This ex- 
plains why jobbing firms welcomed the movement started at this 
time by women's leagues in certain leading cities to reduce the 
retail price of eggs. 

Women's organizations undertook to purchase large lots from 
certain jobbers and sell directly to the consumer. While relatively 
little was actually handled in this way, it nevertheless had impor- 
tant effects, especially to the extent that it attracted the attention 
of the public to the merits of storage eggs. The practice of sell- 
ing the better storage eggs as fresh, leaving inferior storage eggs 
to represent the storage product, had created a prejudice in the 
mind of the public against storage goods in general. The op- 
portunity now afforded to test storage eggs .on their merits was, 
therefore, a distinct gain to the public, while it at the same time 
enabled the jobbers to unload to better advantage during a period 
of falling prices. 



808 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

There is no place in the entire commercial world where men 
compete more actively than do jobbers and commission men. 
Few realize how keen competition is in this class of business. 
In order to secure traffic they reach out to the local shipping 
points and bid for produce. Competition is keen, not only within 
a given market, but between different markets. Shippers watch 
the quotations for the Twin Cities, Chicago, Philadelphia, and 
New York and sell at the point that offers the best returns. 

As a result of competition between jobbers within a given 
primary market as well as between different primary markets, 
the margin on which business is conducted has gradually nar- 
rowed until it is only a fraction of what it was ten or twenty 
years ago. Where the net margin on eggs was formerly one and 
one-half cents per dozen, it has now been reduced to a third or 
a quarter of a cent per dozen. The same is true in the handling 
of other produce as well. As the volume of business has in- 
creased, competition has forced down the net profit per unit of 
the product handled. 

The improvement of refrigerator systems and the rise of large 
cold-storage firms has made possible other economies as well. 
Jobbers handle produce for the future, as well as for the present, 
market. In order to do so they must be able to finance the sup- 
plies held in cold storage. Here the large cold-storage firm has 
been of assistance. It is able to loan money to dealers patroniz- 
ing the storage plant, and enable the small dealers to hold in 
storage by giving them loans at a rate of say 6 per cent. 'Be- 
cause of its superior credit the storage firm in turn borrows 
money at 4 J or 5 per cent at the bank. The margin thus saved 
of 1^ per cent when computed on the total amount of loans ex- 
tended means a source of profit which some firms have declared 
sufficient to cover the office expenses for their entire business. 

Aside from the business of extending loans, these large firms 
have also taken up the function of insurance. They insure the 
products placed in their care for the short periods of time desired 
and, in turn, take out with insurance companies longer-time 
blanket policies in amounts sufficient to cover the risks involved. 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 809 

These longer-time policies are secured at a relatively low pre- 
mium cost, thus again furnishing a source of profit. 

This handling of loans and insurance may in reality be con- 
sidered a by-product industry. The costs on regular storing have 
been greatly reduced per unit handled because an important source 
of income is available from these by-product activities. Where 
such is the case, the small firm is unable to compete and the 
business becomes more and more centered in a few large units. 
The effect thus far has been to cut down the margin on which 
jobbers handle products for the future market. 

While jobbing has well-nigh displaced the business of commis- 
sion merchants in the primary markets of the Central West, it is 
of interest to note that the irresponsible type of commission men 
had a special inducement to leave the field in Minnesota as the 
result of a law passed fourteen years ago. Under the operation 
of that law each commission merchant must obtain a license from 
the Railroad and Warehouse Commission and also execute and 
file with the Secretary of State a bond to the state for the benefit 
of consignors. The amount of the bond and sureties are fixed by 
the Commission, which may increase or reduce the amount from 
time to time. 

When the law was first proposed it was intended to apply spe- 
cifically to grain commission men because of flagrant abuses 
alleged in connection with that business. For instance, if a car 
of grain was received in the morning when wheat was selling at 
eighty cents and the price rose to eighty-two cents during the day, 
the commission man might return an account based on sales at 
the former figure and pocket the difference, even though the sale 
was made at eighty-two cents. Under the new law commission 
men were compelled to indicate the exact minute and hour of the 
day when the sale was made. The law was also made to apply to 
other commission merchants handling farm products, although the 
specific requirements in other cases were not the same as for grain. 

As might be expected, the commission merchants were at first 
opposed to regulation of this kind. Under the operation of the 
law, however, it has been found that these very restrictions have 



810 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

served to protect legitimate commission business. Leading com- 
mission men in the Twin Cities testify that the law has tended 
to increase shipments by helping them to secure the confidence 
of their patrons. 

THE DIRECT METHOD OF EGG-MARKETING 

While by far the greater part of Minnesota's egg supply is 
marketed according to the indirect method, described in the last 
section, whereby it passes through the hands of one or more 
middlemen on its way from the local community to the city re- 
tailer, there is a considerable and constantly growing portion which 
is being marketed by the direct method. As understood in this 
discussion, the direct method implies shipment by any one of sev- 
eral local agencies, including individual farmers, private companies, 
country merchants, or co-operative associations, directly to the city 
retailer without the aid of jobbers, wholesalers, or storage firms. 

The origin of this direct method has, in some instances, been 
due to the initiative of certain retail firms in the large cities which 
have gone into country towns and made definite provision for a 
regular supply to be furnished from week to week. More often, 
however, the initiative is to be traced to efforts on the part. of 
certain agencies in the local communities themselves. In either 
case, it is only in comparatively recent years that this method has 
revealed results of a kind and on a scale sufficient to attract one's 
serious attention. Before attempting any comparisons between the 
direct and indirect methods of egg-marketing, it will be necessary 
to explain more fully the nature of the direct method. 

Retailers in the large cities often find it difficult to furnish their 
customers with a sufficient supply of fresh eggs during all seasons 
of the year. Some of the most annoying experiences encountered 
in the retail trade have arisen in just this way. Customers insist 
upon fresh eggs and first-class butter, and merchants understand 
full well that continued patronage depends to a great extent upon 
how well wants of this kind are satisfied. 

In order to insure a steady supply at all seasons of the year, 
some retailers go into the country and make yearly contracts with 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 811 

what they regard as reliable sources of supply. The contract may 
be made with the owner of a high-class farm to furnish the city 
dealer all the eggs sold from that place. The price paid is rarely 
agreed upon at some uniform figure for the entire year. It is usu- 
ally placed at from two to five cents, in rare instances ten cents, 
above the market price and therefore varies with the different 
seasons of the year. One disadvantage in making such arrange- 
ments with an individual farmer is that the supply furnished is 
usually inadequate. For this reason, large stores which handle 
eggs in considerable quantities find it advantageous to make con- 
tracts with country stores or with creamery companies or other 
associations handling eggs. To insure uniformity in size as well 
as a steady supply, it is sometimes provided that the eggs must 
weigh not less than a minimum number of ounces to the dozen. 

While a number of city retailers have thus sought out their own 
source of supply, by far the larger portion of egg-marketing ac- 
cording to the direct method owes its origin to the initiative of 
farmers or local companies. Where a farmers' organization or a 
private company drawing on supplies from a [variety of people 
in the surrounding country attempts to establish its own market 
among city retailers, certain difficulties are encountered that are 
not easy to overcome. The fact that a group of farmers different 
in tastes and habits contribute to the same supply necessarily 
lowers its standard as compared with what can be furnished by 
an individual farmer. The latter may acquire a good will which 
differences in the membership of a group render it impossible to 
duplicate. To the extent, however, that farmers band themselves 
together under the rules of an association, they are able to mini- 
mize the above differences to a great extent, and for this reason 
we find that supplies furnished from associations sell at a good 
margin above the market price. They are often able to command 
as good a return as that from many high-class individual farmers. 
Nevertheless, the top price paid for the most select trade will be 
found to go to certain individual farms whose highly specialized 
methods place them in a class of their own. 

The farmers' association, or private company, confronts another 
difficulty in the unloading of surplus supplies during each spring 



812 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

season. During April and May the farmers find their shipments 
are very much larger than the regular retail customers in the 
cities are able to receive. How to dispose of this surplus without 
demoralizing the conditions of the regular market has given rise 
to different experiments. Some communities have been able to 
send their surplus to jobbing firms, and because of good will 
already established realize more than the regular market price 
on such surplus shipments. Where the quality has become 
known to many consumers in the city, it has sometimes been 
possible to distribute surplus supplies among retailers other than 
those who are regular patrons. 

Still another plan has been considered recently by some of 
the local associations. This contemplates the storage of surplus 
supplies locally. Thus far, however, no method has been devised 
sufficiently safe to encourage storage to any considerable extent. 
Until new light is shed on the ways and means of storing eggs, 
it is doubtful if local farmers' associations will find it profitable 
to attempt such a course. 

In working up a market for local shipments we thus have 
two sets of problems : first, those connected with the disposal 
of a regular supply throughout the year ; and, second, those re- 
garding the disposal of added amounts during the season of 
surplus. The task of working up a regular market to be supplied 
throughout the year usually requires considerable time. The ad- 
vice of those whose experience entitles them to be heard inva- 
riably is to go slowly. Good market connections cannot be 
established in a month or a season. They must be built up 
gradually. So far as the care of the surplus is concerned the 
best experience thus far seems to point to a temporary extension 
of direct city retail trade and, more often, special shipments to 
jobbers. 

The extent to which local communities may succeed in attempt- 
ing egg-marketing according to the direct method can perhaps 
best be appreciated by referring to the experiences and achieve- 
ments of three localities in Minnesota. 

In 1908 a private firm in a town of east central Minnesota 
began handling eggs in connection with its creamery business. 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 



813 



The proprietor established a carton system whereby farmers 
bringing in eggs were required to stamp each egg so as to 
show the brand of the creamery and the number of the farmer. 
The eggs were placed in cartons, or paper boxes, made to hold 
an even dozen. These cartons were so shaped that they could 



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Diagram II. Number of Dozens of Eggs purchased Each Month by a Local 
Private Creamery in East Central Minnesota 



be packed in regular egg-cases for shipment to the city. Each 
farmer signed an agreement with the creamery, pledging him- 
self to comply with certain definite rules. Eggs were to be gath- 
ered twice a day. None were to be delivered which were more 
than eight days old. They were to be of uniform size and color, 



14 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



and clean. Until brought to the creamery they were to be kept 
in a cool, dry place. Besides stamping the individual eggs the 
carton should also be stamped. All such eggs were to be sold 
to the above creamery. 



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Diagram III. Average Price paid per Dozen Eggs Each Month at a Local 
Private Creamery in East Central Minnesota 

During the first year the number of patrons bringing eggs to 
the creamery varied between 30 and 40. The number ranged 
between 100 and 130 during the second year, and between 150 
and 175 the third year. During the last year more, than 200 
patrons have been selling eggs at the creamery. The number of 
dozens of eggs purchased and shipped from the creamery has 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 815 

likewise increased during these years. The largest business each 
year is during the spring months, and the smallest, during the 
fall. The highest point is reached in either April or May, while 
the lowest has invariably occurred in November. The regularity 
in relative changes from season to season as well as the increase 
in business from year to year is shown in Diagram II. The 
average price per dozen paid to the farmer each month has also 
varied somewhat regularly from season to season, the highest 
point being reached in December, while the lowest price came 
during the surplus season in the spring. This is shown graphi- 
cally in Diagram III. The positions of two curves, one showing 
the relative proportions of eggs shipped and the other indicating 
the relative amounts paid to farmers each month, are presented 
in Diagram IV. This brings out very strikingly the juxtaposi- 
tion of high prices and low shipments in the late fall as well 
as that of low prices and surplus supplies in the spring. 

Where the local farmer is paid 21 cents a dozen, the local 
buyer sells in Duluth to retailers for 23 cents. The Duluth 
retailer pays the express charges which approximate 1 cent a 
dozen. The local margin of 2 cents consists of 1 cent per 
dozen charged by the creamery man for handling and 1 cent 
for the cost of cartons and rented cases. The retailer in Duluth 
buying at 23 cents sells for 29 cents. His margin of 6 cents 
includes 1 cent for express, leaving 5 cents for handling. These 
eggs sell in Duluth for 5 cents more than the market price 
during at least nine months in the year. 

Besides shipping to retailers the creamery man has also secured 
a certain amount of first-class hotel trade. During the spring 
season surplus shipments have been made to Eastern markets 
at top prices. 

Previous to 1908 whatever eggs were brought to this town 
were taken in trade by country merchants. Since that time 
farmers have been receiving cash. Payment is made by checks 
drawn on the local bank. When the egg-buying was first taken 
up by the creamery, the merchants feared that such handling 
of eggs with cash payment would injure their business and lead 
farmers to patronize catalogue houses. To allay such fears the 



8i6 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



creamery men urged patrons to cash their checks at the stores 
rather than at the bank. Later experience has convinced the 
merchants that they as well as the creamery men and the 
farmers have benefited by the change. 



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Diagram IV. Relative Proportion of Eggs shipped Each Month from January, 

1909, to August, 1912, at a Private Creamery in East Central Minnesota; also 

the Average Price paid per Dozen Each Month 

The main difficulty in this creamery man's experience with 
the egg business has been to get the farmers to furnish a uniform 
grade of eggs. With the wide variety of chickens represented 
in the community, eggs of different sizes and colors are mixed 
together. In order to encourage uniformity they adopted the 
plan for a while of paying one cent more per dozen for white 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 817 

eggs than for brown eggs. This induced a number of the farmers 
to get rid of their old stock and invest in white leghorns. As 
a result, the average grade of eggs furnished has been steadily 
improved. 

A community in east central Minnesota deserves our attention 
in this connection because of what it has accomplished through 
co-operative effort. The farmers of Askov could not get cash 
for their eggs and butter during the early years. These products 
had to be brought to the stores and traded for groceries. The 
farmers wanted to get away from the trade system because they 
were in need of money to pay taxes, insurance, and other 
obligations. This led them to organize a farmers' club nearly 
five years ago. Later, in May, 1909, they began the egg-selling 
business. One of the members of the club took charge and 
stipulated two times a week when he would receive eggs at a 
certain room in town. The eggs were to be paid for when the 
returns came in. This man furnished his services gratuitously, 
and there was no charge for the use of the room. It was soon 
found inconvenient, however, to keep the farmers waiting before 
paying for the eggs. The purpose of starting this method to 
begin with was to afford cash payment. The egg branch of the 
farmers' club therefore decided to borrow money and establish 
a reserve fund in order to pay cash. An additional reason for 
establishing the reserve fund was the fact that local merchants 
had suddenly begun to pay cash for eggs purchased. From 
the very beginning each egg was stamped with the number of 
the farmer and the brand of the society. Eggs were placed 
in cartons on which was printed a statement urging buyers to 
report the eggs not found satisfactory. The rules regarding 
the handling of eggs were similiar in many respects to those 
already cited. In order to insure good quality one of the by- 
laws stipulated a fine of fifty cents for each egg received that 
was not good. 

The most serious problem in marketing eggs at Askov has 
been that of getting a market. Changes have been made from 
time to time in the market selected for shipment. There has 
been a shifting between sales to retailers and sales to jobbing 



818 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

firms. Finally, during the. last summer, a shift was made to a 
retailer in another primary market. The best results seem to 
have been secured from shipments made to retailers. With them 
the prices have been such as to cause general satisfaction among 
farmers. The main difficulty encountered at Askov came last 
spring when there was a surplus. To unload this it was necessary 
to go to the jobbers. These, however, did not care to take the 
eggs unless they were to receive all eggs shipped out by the 
association. Moreover, the regular retail customers did not want 
the eggs sold to other retailers in their neighborhood. This made 
it practically impossible to unload the surplus by an extension of 
the retail trade. It was finally necessary to sell all the eggs 
to the jobbing firms. A little later the tgg business which had 
been handled in connection with the farmers' co-operative cream- 
ery was given up by the butter-maker because of the pressure of 
other work. Since then it has been taken care of in connection 
with the farmers' feed business. 

The average net price per dozen received by the farmers each 
month from July i, 191 1, to July, 191 2, is shown by the dotted 
line in Diagram V. On the same diagram may also be seen a 
continuous line indicating the average price paid the farmers by 
the private creamery described above. It will be noticed that 
there are greater fluctuations in the price received by the farmers' 
co-operative association at Askov than in the prices paid to farmers 
by the private creamery. These greater fluctuations at Askov are 
to be explained partly by the changes made in markets. In any 
case, however, the variation in prices paid by the private creamery 
would be less abrupt because of the policy of leaving the figures 
untouched for regular periods regardless of market changes. 

The third example to be cited in this connection of a local 
community which has practiced successfully the direct method 
of egg-marketing is that of the farmers at Dassel. Here, as at 
Askov, the first form of co-operative effort was the organization 
of a farmers' club. Two years later, in 1909, the carton egg 
business was started. Rules similar to those already mentioned 
were adopted regarding the care and handling of eggs. At first 
eggs were stamped individually. Last year, however, this was 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 



abandoned. Since then eggs have been placed in cartons, and 
these have been stamped in place of stamping the individual eggs. 







1911 


1912 








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3 5* o c o 
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2 
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„ Private Creamery 















Diagram V. Average Prices paid Farmers for Eggs Each Month from July, 191 1, 
to July, 191 2, by a Farmers' Co-operative Association and by a Private Creamery 

According to the statement of the local management the stamp- 
ing of individual eggs is unnecessary, it being found that the 
stamping of cartons serves the same purpose. Moreover, by leav- 
ing eggs unstamped they encountered less difficulty in disposing 



820 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

of the surplus stock in the spring. The occurrence of the latter 
difficulty a year ago was the main cause in changing to the 
present method. 

According to the new plan another improvement has been 
made aside from the method of stamping. Eggs are now divided 
into three grades : 

i. Standard or best, weighing 25 ounces or over. 

2. Medium, weighing 24 ounces. 

3. Lower grade, weighing 23 ounces to the dozen. No eggs 
weighing less than 23 ounces to the dozen are allowed in car- 
tons. Such eggs may be shipped, however, in separate cases. 

Great importance is attached to the new plan of grading by 
weight and paying according to weight. The price variation is 
1 cent between each grade. If the lower grade is worth 25 cents, 
the medium will bring 26 cents, and the best, 27 cents per dozen. 

Before the plan was adopted, rules or fines had been used by 
the farmers but with little avail. On the other hand, after the 
grades were established by weight and payment made accordingly, 
the farmers began to take steps to supply the heavier or larger 
eggs. As a result, a movement was started to improve the 
quality of fowls as rapidly as possible. Before the change was 
made many eggs came in weighing as little as nineteen ounces to 
the dozen. Since that time the farmers have gradually adopted the 
habit of keeping the small eggs for household use. The great bulk 
of the eggs now marketed average twenty-five ounces to the dozen. 

The new plan of grading eggs according to weight has reacted 
favorably upon average price returns received by the farmers at 
Dassel. A year ago the margin received above the market price 
during the surplus season was 1 cent a dozen. Last spring it 
was never less than 2 cents a dozen. This margin varies for 
different seasons of the year, running as high as 6 or 8 cents 
above the market price during late fall and early winter. For 
the entire year the margin above market quotations for " firsts " 
averages 3 cents. 

When the handling of eggs in cartons was first started by 
the farmers at Dassel, they experienced considerable difficulty 
in working up a market. It was necessary to demonstrate that 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 821 

the product they handled was superior to the average shipments 
sent to the larger cities. Although these difficulties have now 
been entirely overcome, the Dassel farmers realize that it is nec- 
essary to go slowly in building up a trade and that each locality 
must work up its own market very carefully. Not only has the 
regular market oeen established successfully among retailers, but 
the surplus during the season of overflow has gone to jobbers at 
a price not to exceed one cent per dozen below that received on 
regular shipments. 

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS 

In comparing results under the direct and indirect methods 
of egg-marketing it is important at the outset to consider the 
expenses for services which are now required under the indirect 
method and which do not appear in the list of charges under 
the direct method. 

Important among these is the expense involved for storage. 
We have seen how the shipment of regular supplies is made 
to city retailers under the direct method and how surplus stock 
during the spring months is prevented from demoralizing the 
market with regular customers by resorting to the jobbers' trade. 
This simply means that those employing the direct method find 
it necessary to utilize the indirect route during the critical season 
of the year in order to protect their, own method. By doing so 
they are able to shift the responsibility of adjusting the unequal 
distribution of supply at different seasons according to the regular 
demands of the consumer. In this way the machinery which 
handles products shipped under the indirect method is also called 
upon to take care of the surplus stocks from the direct method. 
Stated in other words, the whole expense of carrying over supplies 
from seasons of plenty and redistributing them according to con- 
sumers' wants at times of relative scarcity devolves upon the in- 
direct method. As already explained, the invention utilized in 
making this possible is that of cold storage. 

The services involved in cold storage under typical conditions 
in the Twin Cities incur a carrying charge of two and one-half 



822 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

cents per dozen from spring until January first to cover interest, 
rentals, and insurance. The jobber, however, who holds eggs 
during this period assumes the risk of being able to unload his 
holdings so as to meet the above carrying charge in addition to 
the original purchase price. He counts on selling at a higher 
figure than the sum total of items enumerated above, and because 
of this incentive he has been induced to remove a certain stock 
from the season of surplus. Just what profit is thus secured varies 
among jobbers in the same primary market and among the differ- 
ent primary markets. It also varies with the kind of eggs handled 
and with the season of the year when they are unloaded. It in- 
volves not merely the risks attendant upon market changes during 
a storage season, but other considerations as well. 

Within the same primary market will be found dealers whose 
superior knowledge of marketing conditions or whose superior 
equipment or greater capital enable them to buy to better advan- 
tage as well as to sell at an advance over what is secured by 
weaker competitors. As between different primary markets, other 
things being equal, there is added expense incurred in the larger 
primary markets over that of smaller primary markets. 

In New York City the large scale handling involved has given 
rise to the presence of both a commission man and a jobber 
in the chain of middlemen between the shipper and the retailer, 
whereas the commission man has been practically eliminated in 
the Twin Cities. 

The various items of expense to be included under middleman 
charges for the handling of eggs in New York City have been 
set forth in a report recently issued by a committee of the New 
York State Food Investigating Commission, and are indicated in 
the following table, which is quoted almost exactly. This table 
is supposed to show the accumulation of charges on eggs based 
on a hypothetical basic price of twenty cents per dozen. 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 



823 



ANALYSIS OF RETAIL PRICE OF EGGS IN NEW YORK CITY 



Producer's price 

Shipper's charges : 

(a) Labor in collection and packing 

(b) Cases, fillers, and packing . 

(c) Transportation charges to city 
Commission for handling 1 . 
Jobber's charges : 

(a) Cartage from dock to store . 

(b) Candling and grading . . 

(c) Storage and insurance . . 

(d) Jobber's profit and charges 

(e) Delivery to the retailer . . 
Retailer's charges : 

(a) Operating expenses, 10% . 

(b) Retailer's profit, 5% . . . 
Price paid by consumer, $0,313 . 



$0.20 $0.20 



.005 




0073 




.0106 


.023 


01 


.01 


00133 




00666 




016 




01 




004 


.038 


0271 




01497 


.042 



$0,313 



In the light of such information as the writer has been able 
to secure, certain modifications would have to be made in the 
above table in order to reflect the operations and charges in the 
Twin Cities. The commission man's margin of one cent per 
dozen would not appear in a statement for the latter markets 
since the jobber's returns cover the profits of the only inter- 
mediary between the country merchant and the city retailers. 
Modifications would also need to be made under what is termed 
shipper's charges. These are largely handled by the country 
store-keeper in the Twin City territory, and the practice of the 
latter, as already stated, is to pay the farmer as much as is 
received from the jobber after deducting proportionate expenses 
for transport and other necessary items. 

While the above-mentioned differences would make the middle- 
man charges less, there are other factors which operate in the 
opposite direction. Twin City dealers place the expense and loss 
on candling and grading at twice the amount shown in the above 
table. The higher figure is declared necessary in order to candle 
eggs when they are placed in storage and again when they are 
taken out of storage and placed in new fillers. The difference 



824 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

here referred to is due to the fact that New York City supplies 
are mainly received in carload lots from packers who have already 
candled the eggs in a manner that involves far less waste than 
is incurred on shipments from local merchants to jobbers in the 
Twin Cities. This contrast will be referred to again. 

Thus far certain considerations connected with the indirect 
method have been discussed which are not attached to the direct 
method. Such is the case with carrying charges including in- 
terest, rentals, and insurance which must needs be met in con- 
nection with cold storage. Inseparably linked with this is the risk 
feature due to uncertainty in future price and which is shouldered 
by jobbers at a variable margin determined by competitive bidding. 

In addition to the above differences there are other contrasts 
between the direct and indirect methods which we shall now con- 
sider. Most important among them is that of the quality of eggs 
shipped from local communities under the two methods. We have 
already noticed the miscellaneous quality of eggs supplied under 
the indirect method. A mixture of different sizes and colors as 
well as varying degrees of quality confront the jobber. He must 
subject the stock to several processes such as candling, sorting, 
and repacking. Not only these operations themselves but also the 
losses from portions either entirely unsalable or marketable only 
as inferior goods add to the middleman's charges. This additional 
cost, moreover, is not an expense necessarily inherent in the in- 
direct method. It arises mainly as the result of the " case-count " 
policy of paying by the dozen regardless of quality which has 
almost invariably been adopted in the past wherever the indirect 
method has been applied. 

In contrast with this we find another policy applied under the 
direct method of egg-marketing. Here the central idea empha- 
sized is the superiority in the quality of service rendered. Every 
part of the mechanism is . constructed with this primary aim in 
view. Only eggs of the best quality will be received. The organ- 
ization is so perfected as to fix responsibility on each individual 
who contributes to the supply. It has been found impossible to 
assemble a product such as eggs from a large number of farmers 



STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 825 

and at the same time insure the quality unless individual respon- 
sibility is absolutely fixed in every case. This means that each 
farmer must be held responsible for the quality of eggs he fur- 
nishes and, at the same time, be remunerated according to the 
standard of quality furnished. It is then, and only then, that the 
farmer renders his best service, the consumer receives the best 
quality, and the middleman charges are kept at a minimum. 

As soon as any policy is adopted other than that of offering 
remuneration according to the quality of the service rendered, we 
immediately introduce counteracting forces which lead to different 
results all along the line from the producer to the consumer. This 
is well illustrated under the early method where the country mer- 
chant accepted the eggs of the farmer by "case-count" and gave 
a flat rate per dozen regardless of quality. This rewarded dis- 
honesty, penalized integrity, and led to flagrant discrimination. 
The equalization of prices among farmers meant that those fur- 
nishing eggs of inferior quality received a subsidy at the expense 
of those who contributed a high-class product. Moreover, to the 
extent that the country merchant charged higher prices for his 
wares because of inducements given to the farmers' trade, it 
meant that other purchasers at the store were compelled to buy 
at a higher price. In this way the farmers furnishing eggs were, 
as a class, subsidized at the expense of the other patrons of the 
country merchant. This is not all, however. Under a <( case- 
count " system applied with no reference whatever to quality, 
there will arise similar differences as between different localities 
shipping to the same primary market. The community furnishing 
eggs of low quality may be subsidized at the expense of localities 
sending a superior grade. While the honest farmer in a given 
locality is thus taxed for the benefit of his dishonest or careless 
neighbor ; while all patrons except those trading in eggs are com- 
pelled to pay the country merchant higher prices because of the 
egg business and as a direct contribution to it ; and while enter- 
prising communities aiming at higher standards are compelled to 
pay tribute to those that pay less attention to quality ; while all 
these forms of subsidy are encouraged under a "case-count" 



826 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

system, it is to be noted that the tendency in every instance is 
to discourage improvement in quality and offer every inducement 
to level downwards the standard of the product furnished. 

Moreover, this same policy has increased to a large extent the 
expense of the middleman operations between the producer and 
the consumer. Aside from the unnecessary outlay involved in 
transportation expenses to primary markets on unsalable prod- 
ucts, and aside from the enhancement of risk because of the un- 
certainty of the proportion of loss to be deducted in estimating 
price from primary markets, there is added a considerable expense 
in sorting and assembling the miscellaneous product. Such opera- 
tions are directly chargeable almost entirely to the wastefulness 
of the "case-count" policy. The expense thus added can be 
materially reduced only by adopting the policy of handling eggs 
on a "loss-off" basis. This does not imply that the "loss- 
off " system will entirely do away with middlemen operations of 
this kind. It does mean that such expenses will be materially 
lessened, however. 

The extra expense attached to the handling of eggs under the 
"case-count" system is difficult to estimate. It means a waste 
that amounts to many millions of dollars annually. Because of 
the wide extent of the practice, every state in the Union pays 
heavy tribute in the name of this antiquated policy. It is one of 
the important factors to be considered in tabulating the present- 
day cost of living. 



THE TECHNIQUE OF MEDLEVAL AND MODERN 
PRODUCE MARKETS 

By Abbott Payson Usher 
(From the Journal of Political Economy, Vol. XXIII, No. 4, April, 191 5) 

[Footnotes are omitted from this reprint. The reader is referred to the 
original article. — Ed.] 

I. FUNCTION AND NATURE OF ORGANIZED SPECULATION 

MEDIAEVAL ordinances prohibited speculative transactions 
and were particularly severe against resale without dis- 
placement of the goods. It was supposed that gains made by 
conveying goods from one place to another were legitimate and 
that gains entirely attributable to changes in value were not. The 
function of the middleman was supposed to consist entirely in 
the movement of commodities from one place to another. Ac- 
cording to the letter of the law, speculation was illegal, but the 
prohibitions could not be enforced and the arbitrage transactions 
between different places were not free from speculation as was 
supposed. Under the prevailing conditions of trade, changes in 
value in a period of time could not be separated from the differ- 
ences in value in different markets. The purchase and sale in 
the distant markets were not simultaneous. Purchase in the low 
markets of a producing region preceded by a considerable period 
the eventual sale in the consuming center. The interval of time 
that must needs elapse introduced a definitely speculative element 
into a transaction that was officially tolerated because it was sup- 
posed to be free from the taint of speculative gain. There were 
some communities where life was so distinctly self-centered that 
trade with distant markets was relatively unimportant, but such ex- 
treme localism was not characteristic of the late mediaeval period. 
For the most part, trading relations were elaborately developed. 

The changes in the technique of market organization in the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have made it possible to 

827 



828 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

distinguish sharply between the truly speculative time transactions 
and the essentially non-speculative transactions between different 
places. The accomplishment of this result turns upon the full 
recognition of the essential interdependence of the markets that 
constitute a market system and upon the development of con- 
tracts for future delivery. Grudgingly the community has come 
to recognize that speculation is inevitable and necessary, but 
speculative gains are still associated in the minds of many citizens 
with dishonesty, gambling, and predatory activity. Because the 
sale of commodities without displacement seems to involve no 
effort, but merely chance, the profits are deemed to be tainted. 
The modern market system is thus misunderstood because of 
a firmly rooted prejudice, and the great improvement in the 
technique of trade almost unrecognized. 

Speculation is to be distinguished from gambling by the nature 
of the contingency. Gambling is concerned with pure contin- 
gency apart from any other consideration. The outcome of any 
uncertain event can become the basis of a wagering contract. 
The results of games, races, political contests, and the like are 
the characteristic field of the wager. Attention is concentrated 
wholly upon the occurrence or non-occurrence of the event. In 
an election bet, for instance, there is no implication that either 
party will be directly concerned in the outcome ; so far as wager- 
ing is concerned they might as well bet upon the turn of dice. 
A speculative transaction involves an element of contingency. It 
assumes that something is going to happen of which no one 
knows precisely what the outcome will be, but the speculator is 
interested in the consequences of the event. To bet on the out- 
come of a horse race is in itself pure gambling. The same event 
may contribute an essential fact to a speculative transaction. 
Suppose a person has bought a relatively unknown horse, thinking 
the animal seriously under-rated because of poor training and 
driving. The horse is taken in hand with a view to ultimate sale 
when its true powers have been revealed. The value of the 
horse can be demonstrated only by a series of successful perform- 
ances on the race track, so that the owner is taking a chance, 
as it were, upon the outcome of the races. It will be readily seen, 



MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 829 

however, that the place of these races in the owner's interest is 
very different from the importance attached to the same events 
by persons who have given money to a bookmaker on the same 
horse. To the owner the race is merely a way of proving to 
others the accuracy of opinions long held by him. It is part 
of a larger situation. His gain is to be derived from establishing 
a different opinion as to the value of the horse. The gambler is 
interested merely in winning or losing. To him the race is a 
bare fact without consequences. Speculation is thus an attempt 
to gain by anticipating changes in the values of commodities. 
Gambling is a seeking of gain and excitement from the occur- 
rence or non-occurrence of any uncertain event. Speculation is 
concerned with the content and significance of events affecting 
the valuation of commodities, gambling with the bare fact that 
something has occurred. 

Mediaeval speculation is not to be distinguished from modern 
speculation by the antithesis between time differences and place 
differences. All speculation involves the element of time. But 
essential differences may arise in the mode of handling the goods 
during the time interval. In the Middle Ages, the speculator in 
produce was practically limited in his operations by the amount 
of his personal wealth. To-day, goods held for speculation are 
largely carried on credit. In abstract terms the difference may 
seem slight, but in reality it involves a complete transformation 
of the technique of trade, and the organization which to-day 
makes possible the extension of credit in this field also brought 
to an end the confusion between the speculative and non- 
speculative elements of dealing in produce. 

The necessity of speculating upon personal capital in the Middle 
Ages greatly restricted the scope of professional operations. All 
owners of property were obliged to speculate more or less, and 
the owners of large estates became involved in considerable 
ventures. It was illegal to purchase grain for speculative hoards, 
and there is reason to believe that the prohibitions were enforced 
in a measure. We may feel some assurance that large hoards 
were not formed by direct purchase in the markets, but the laws 
could not oblige an owner to sell except in times of extreme 



830 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

dearth, so that the owners and landed proprietors could legally 
store the rents in kind received from the estate. In regions 
which yielded a substantial surplus above ordinary local needs, the 
hoards of the tithe barns and manor houses were considerable. 
These stores were the basis of much wholesale buying at all 
times and were the main source of reliance in the years of dearth. 
Persons of small means were obliged by necessity to sell their 
grain in the local market more or less promptly. Unless the 
small cultivator was peculiarly needy, his grain was sold off little 
by little according to the possibilities of using the straw for the 
cattle. The drying and curing of the grain was thus provided for 
automatically by leaving it unthreshed until it could be sold and 
consumed. This practice also insured a fairly steady supply 
for the local market throughout the season. Force of circum- 
stances thus made the small cultivator the dominant resource of 
the market from week to week. In regions having a surplus 
those who could postpone sale for an indeterminate* period found 
it to their advantage to do so, and they became by force of cir- 
cumstances a class of unprofessional speculators who held grain 
for six, seven, or eight years at times. Grain in store was usually 
kept in hermetically sealed pits. There was considerable risk of 
deterioration, but such methods of storage are excelled only by 
the most elaborate elevator construction of modern times. The 
existence of these hoards was of moment to the professional 
trader. Where such supplies existed the merchant from the 
large town found it advantageous to deal directly with the wealthy 
proprietors. Purchases could thus be made in bulk and without 
regard to the market regulations that were so frequently designed 
to discourage the wholesale trader. The professional trader was 
more likely to confine his speculation to the current season ; the 
proprietor took the risks of loss through deterioration and of 
protracted waiting for a year of dearth. 

The nearest approach to an application of credit to produce 
speculation in the Middle Ages was the purchase of a standing 
crop. This was definitely prohibited, but it is certain that the 
ordinances were not enforced. This transaction was a sale of 
the crop sealed by the payment of a small sum of earnest money. 



MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 831 

A merchant was thus enabled to secure a considerable supply of 
grain at harvest without immediate outlay. 

Speculation in produce is primarily founded . upon the exact 
determination of the relation between the visible and the total 
supply. In modern times, statistical information is available 
which confines individual opinion within fairly narrow limits. 
In the Middle Ages, the visible supply constituted a smaller 
portion of the total supply, and the total supply was hardly 
more than a matter of pure conjecture. The margin of possible 
gain for the professional trader was thus considerably increased. 
The nature of speculative operations was also affected. The great 
maneuvers of the modern markets are founded upon superiority 
of knowledge of conditions affecting both demand and supply. 
General sources of information are so considerable that the 
trader's gain is based upon acquisition of more precise details 
and upon skill in drawing deductions from his facts. The his- 
tory of the famous Patten wheat deal and of the Bull deal in 
cotton are interesting illustrations of modern successes. In the 
late Middle Ages the ignorance of the total supply was so com- 
plete that the spectacular gains of the merchants were made by 
refraining from giving ; the public any enlightenment as to total 
supplies and studiously creating misapprehensions. Some of the 
most systematic maneuvers of this type occurred in the vicinity 
of Paris in the latter half of the seventeenth century, just before 
the passing of the old order. A large portion of the grain sup- 
ply of Paris came by water from the upper Marne and Seine. 
These merchants shipped their grain from the more distant 
sources of supply, and then, instead of allowing the boats to 
come through to Paris, they stopped them fifteen or twenty miles 
outside and unloaded there. Sometimes there was a pretense of 
holding the grain for conversion into flour ; most frequently it 
was merely stored in secret. The arrivals at Paris could be con- 
siderably diminished. Rumors would then spread of relative 
dearth in the Seine and Marne valleys. Prices would rise. The 
supplies in the vicinity could then be sold at the advanced prices 
if the quantities released from store at any one time were not 
considerable. Such a falsification of the market was made possible 



832 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

by the almost complete ignorance of the amount of the hoardings 
held in store by the wealthy proprietors of the country districts. 
The absence of information was of course a natural outcome of 
the conditions which created such hoards. The possibility of 
carrying produce on credit has resulted in more immediate sale 
of the crop and the storage of the greater portion of the actual 
stock in warehouses that are more or less public. The portion of 
the supply visible at any one time is much greater than in the 
past,. and as nearly all the crop is sold in the course of the season, 
accurate seasonal crop statistics become possible. This brings the 
total supply within the range of certain knowledge. 

The organization of the modern markets has extended the 
functions of the middleman. In the old days his only recognized 
function was the transportation of the commodity from place to 
place. Now, apart from the speculative function that we now 
recognize, there are also a number of non-speculative functions. 

The future contract makes it essential that some means be 
found of trading in the particular commodity as freely as would , 
be possible if the entire supply were actually of uniform quality. 
The contractor can only agree to deliver certain quantities, and 
as the specific lot of goods to be delivered is not designated, the 
quality must be described. Such future transactions imply that 
each portion of the supply is substantially as good as any. In fact, 
the most even-running commodities present differences of quality. 
Organized speculation thus involves a grading system. Judg- 
ments of quality are standardized, rendered independent of the 
individual caprice of the parties trading, carefully defined and 
described so that the adjustments with reference to quality can 
be impartially and certainly made. 

Financing the storage of the commodity during sale is inevita- 
bly associated with speculation. The possible changes in value 
during storage make the transaction speculative in part at least, 
and the amount of capital value that must lie idle pending sale 
constitutes a specially serious problem in these days of concen- 
trated trade. When general farming was the rule, sale of a por- 
tion of the crop was a necessary means of securing money to pay 
taxes and other special obligations. The means of subsistence 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 833 

were raised on the farm. To-day, the farm is devoted to more 
highly specialized agriculture. In some places, the agricultural 
community is actually dependent on central markets for some 
means of subsistence and for most general articles of consump- 
tion. There is more need of ready money. Postponement of sale 
by the farmer is less feasible than in the past. He desires to sell 
his crop immediately after the harvest. Professional traders must 
thus provide means during the harvest period for purchasing the 
great staple crops almost entire, and with their bankers they must 
carry the financial burden until the stocks can be sold. This 
function of the middlemen is essentially new because of changed 
conditions in the marketing of staples. The significance of this 
function has not been adequately appreciated. 

The modern methods of marketing the cereal crops create 
technical problems of conditioning. If the grain is cured before 
it is threshed, there is little danger of trouble from overheating 
and deterioration. The older methods thus made it possible to 
.dispense with much elaborate curing that is indispensable when 
the crop is marketed rapidly and massed in elevators. The value 
of all these products is profoundly affected by the care with 
which they are handled in the elevators, so that the middleman 
finds a new source of gain in the manipulation of the product 
during storage. 

Increased freedom to speculate has in fact narrowed the range 
of speculation. The activities of speculative traders are more evi- 
dent, of course ; much that was concealed is now given wide pub- 
licity — concentration has brought together in specific exchanges 
activities that were formerly spread at large through the store- 
houses of producing regions or receiving ports. The increased 
visibility of speculation disposes us to think of our age as char- 
acteristically speculative, and the change in law lends support to 
such a view. But such a generalization is superficial. The change 
in the technique of trade cannot be described in such terms. 
It is an error to say that mediaeval trade was largely non- 
speculative and modern trade highly speculative. The speculative 
elements in mediaeval trade were not very frankly recognized, 
but they were present. The achievement of modern commercial 



834 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

organization lies in the separation of the speculative and non- 
speculative elements involved. During the Middle Ages all trans- 
actions involved speculation ; to-day some transactions are purely 
speculative and others wholly devoid of speculation. To-day a 
trader may choose to speculate or to avoid speculation and seek 
gain in a purely industrial or commercial operation. The organi- 
zation of speculative trade has restricted the field of speculative 
gains and losses, actually reducing the proportionate importance 
of such transactions. 

The organization of produce speculation has obscured in a 
measure the distinction between speculation and gambling. It is 
not so clearly evident to-day that the speculator actually owns 
produce, and this has presented a real problem. In the modern 
markets many transactions are settled by ring settlement or set-off. 
The business of the different traders on an exchange during the 
day is naturally settled in the simplest way. If A has bought 
wheat and later sold a similar amount, there is really nothing to 
be done but pay the differences in cash. It is likewise possible 
to bring together a group of transactions which involve several 
parties who have dealt in similar lots. The whole series of par- 
chases and sales can perhaps be liquidated by a single transfer 
of warehouse certificates for money, so that the parties eliminated 
do not actually go through the form of buying and selling produce. 
Critics of the exchanges have endeavored to discredit these opera- 
tions by declaring that they are in fact mere wagers upon the rise 
and fall of prices. It cannot be denied that it is possible to make 
wagers upon the movement of prices. There may be some wager- 
ing in the exchanges, but it is certainly not characteristic. The 
operations on the floor of the exchange are wagers neither in form 
nor in intent. Transactions are based upon actual rights to acquire 
property or upon obligations to deliver property. The goods are 
represented only by documents of title that are symbols of prop- 
erty, but this does not make the transaction less real. The Su- 
preme Court has upheld the exchange, and the doctrine of intent 
that is involved is one of the most fundamental legal principles. 



MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 835 

II. TECHNIQUE OF MODERN MARKETING 

Organized speculation is based upon contracts for future de- 
livery which make it possible to sell for specified prices goods 
which are to be delivered in the future. These contracts may 
assume a variety of forms. They may be divided in general into 
"to arrive" contracts and term contracts; and term contracts may 
be of two kinds, specific-grade contracts or basic-grade contracts. 
The sale of goods in transit with agreement to deliver at the 
stated price immediately upon arrival is a form of contract that 
is naturally adapted to the conditions of trading in receiving ports 
or consuming markets. This mode of doing business grew up in 
connection with the maritime trade of London and Amsterdam. 
Cargoes were sold while still a.t sea, and time of arrival was natu- 
rally made the time of delivery. Such contracts are also applied 
to goods in transit by rail, though the shorter interval of time 
likely to elapse makes such a contract slightly less speculative 
than the marine contracts. These contracts are usually made upon 
the basis of samples sent in advance of the general cargo or upon 
the understanding that the goods must be of fair average quality 
(the so-called f. a. q. basis). Disputes as to quality would in such 
cases be adjudicated by a committee of the trading association 
and deductions from the price allowed if the stuff were below 
grade. Such contracts can therefore be used without any system 
of grading. The strict term contracts, however, require a formal 
and systematic grading. The precise nature of the grades estab- 
lished can vary within wide limits, but some system is presup- 
posed by the character of the contract. The obligation of such 
a contract is not to deliver a specific lot, but merely to deliver, 
within specific time limits, a certain quantity of stuff so that there 
must be some definition of the quality of the goods to be delivered. 
Two modes of defining the qualities are open : the seller may be 
required to deliver a specific grade of goods at the price stated, 
with permission perhaps to deliver higher grades without com- 
pensation ; or he may be allowed to deliver stuff of several grades 
at prices to be computed by additions to the price of a basic 
grade if the goods are above the base chosen and by subtraction 



836 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

from the basic price if below the grade in terms of which the 
price is quoted. 

These varieties of form are the outcome of different trading 
conditions. The relative advantages of the term contract and the 
" to arrive " contract are related to the slightly different problems 
of marketing in producing and consuming centers. The produc- 
ing market will have little occasion for the "to arrive" contract; 
the consuming market will find it possible to use both forms, 
though in many cases the " to arrive " contract seems to be better 
adapted to the needs of trade than the other form. For this rea- 
son, it would be a serious error to regard the " to arrive " form 
as a rudimentary term contract, and in tracing origins and study- 
ing tendencies it is essential to remember the complexity of the 
problem. The two forms of term contracts are likewise an out- 
come of differences in conditions. Some commodities can be 
handled most readily in a particular market upon a specific con- 
tract ; others can be handled only upon a basic contract. When 
the number of grades is small and proportions fairly certain, the 
specific contract has become the characteristic form, as it is in 
the wheat pit of the Chicago Board of Trade. With a great multi- 
plicity of grades and much uncertainty as to the proportion of 
each grade from year to year, as in the cotton trade, a basic 
contract is probably essential. 

In view of all these complexities of form it might seem that 
historical treatment of the growth of the modern system would be 
impracticable, but the course of development is not complicated. 
The Dutch in the seventeenth century used all forms of specula- 
tive contracts, and their speculation tended to degenerate into 
pure gambling entirely detached from actual buying and selling 
of goods. In England, in the eighteenth century, the "to arrive" 
contract was elaborately developed and placed on a secure basis by 
reason of the development of the bill of lading into a negotiable 
symbol of property. In the East India trade at London and in 
the iron trade at Glasgow, the dock warrant was developed and 
at Glasgow became a purely general certificate of ownership of 
a particular quantity of a specified grade of goods. This develop- 
ment of negotiable symbols of property was a fundamental step, 



MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 837 

as it afforded the possibility of using the various future contracts 
without the dangers that had been fully revealed by Dutch ex- 
perience. Finally, in the grain trade of western United States, 
the term contract was developed into an elaborately developed 
instrument that seems to represent the final form. 

In the Middle Ages the law of the market insisted upon the 
physical presence of the goods to be bought and sold. The 
market could deal only in such supplies as were physically 
visible. The inconvenience and dangers of such limitations 
became serious with the rise of wholesale marketing. The 
essential interdependence of producing and consuming markets 
could not be recognized adequately until each market was made 
competent to trade in terms of the whole supply to be found in 
the entire group of related markets. The stability of the large 
markets was greatly increased by making it possible to buy and 
sell not merely the goods physically present, but goods in transit 
and goods actually in the hands of traders on another market. 
The significance of this interdependence of markets has become 
doubly clear since the great improvements in communication 
have made it possible for dealers to engage in operations simul- 
taneously in widely separated markets. The full development 
of this system of trading has been confined to the period subse- 
quent to the opening of the Atlantic cable, but the origin of the 
system reaches farther back into the past. This modern system 
of trading rests upon two types of instrument : the future con- 
tracts already described ; and symbols of property, such as bills 
of lading, dock warrants, and warehouse certificates. The early 
forms of future trading have been discussed already, and the 
necessity of other instruments can be clearly perceived in the 
tendency of Dutch speculation to degenerate into gambling on 
differences. 

The new legal doctrines which were to complete the technical 
foundation of the modern speculative system appear first in the 
law merchant and the English decisions associated with it. 
Neither the bill of lading nor the dock warrant was itself new, 
but both instruments acquired new legal attributes in the course 
of the eighteenth century. Originally mere receipts of goods 



838 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and contracts for carriage or storage, they became negotiable 
instruments whose delivery when properly indorsed constituted 
delivery of title. 

The formative periods in the legal history of the bill of lading 
in England are the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The bill 
became common and acquired its general form in the course of 
the sixteenth century ; the legal doctrine of negotiability was not 
fully developed until the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
From these general facts one is tempted to lay down the general 
proposition that the bill as a receipt for goods and contract of 
affreightment became definitely settled in the early period, but 
did not become a symbol of title negotiable by indorsement until 
the eighteenth century. This conception of the development 
of the bill should probably be qualified, as the sale of floating 
cargoes and transfer of title by indorsement of bills certainly 
occurred in fact long before it was solidly established in legal 
doctrine. A number of bills of lading are published in the 
" Select Pleas in the Court of Admiralty." The form of the in- 
strument is evidently unsettled in a number of respects, and a 
real development is evident. The documents suggest in every 
respect the origin of the instrument and seem to be merely re- 
ceipts for goods and contracts of affreightment, but this narrower 
view of the bill is invalidated by the editor's heading with refer- 
ence to the bill of November 7, 1539. The bill was drawn for 
a consignment of iron from Bilbao to London. The iron was 
sold while afloat, the bill of lading was indorsed to the buyer, 
and the goods were delivered to him. A decision of Savary, the 
noted French authority on commercial law in the late seventeenth 
century, . would also suggest that actual use of bills of lading was 
not limited by acknowledged doctrine. Savary says : "It is 
asked if a bill of lading should be deemed valid if it merely 
states what merchandise has been received by the master of the 
vessel without mention of the consignee. It is absolutely essential 
that the bill contain the name of the consignee, otherwise it is 
a fraud." With the rise of speculative trade it was the practice 
to draw bills in blank with the intention of filling in the name 
of the consignee when the goods had been sold ; thus it becomes 



MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 839 

interesting to speculate as to the inferences that may be properly 
drawn from Savary's statement and from the passage in the 
Marine Code of 1681 to which he refers. It is difficult to avoid 
the conclusion that merchants made frequent use of bills of 
lading in ways that were not recognized by the courts, so that 
one must avoid the narrow view of the matter. However, there 
are plenty of reasons for supposing that such deliveries by in- 
dorsement must have been rare. The practice of indorsement 
of bills of exchange was only just beginning in the north of 
Europe in this period and was not generally adopted until the 
middle of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, the fact that 
the full recognition of the negotiability of the bill of lading was 
postponed till the eighteenth century is presumptive evidence 
that the practice was not widespread. Had . there been many 
cases the problems would have come to the notice of the courts 
earlier. The number of significant cases between 1750 and 1790 
is eloquent evidence of the close relation of case law to the 
needs of the community. 

The modern law takes form in the eighteenth century. The 
more important cases are: Fearon v. Bowers, March 28, 1753; 
Wright, assignee of Scott, v. Campbell, 1767; Caldwell et al. 
v. Ball, May 17, 1786; Lickbarrow v. Mason, 1787; and a 
second trial in 1794. The principle of negotiability is definitely 
stated in the earliest of these cases. Justice Lee said in sum- 
ming up, " To be sure, nakedly considered, a bill of lading 
transfers property and a right to assign that property by endorse- 
ment." The legal problems centered in no small measure around 
the nature of negotiability. There was disposition on the part 
of some to assume that the degree of negotiability was precisely 
similar to that of a bill of exchange. This doctrine was not 
accepted by the courts, and in the course of the period the 
difference between this aspect of the two bills was clearly brought 
out. Wright v. Campbell involved the right of a factor to sell 
goods consigned to him by his principal while they were in 
transit. Caldwell v. Ball involved the problem of precedence of 
different copies of the bill of lading when the indorsements were 
different, though constructively the same. The case of lickbarrow 



840 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

v. Mason involved two problems : stoppage in transitu in case of 
the insolvency of the original consignee, and the validity of bills 
indorsed in blank. The complexity of the case, its prominence, 
and long judicial history made it ^he controlling case on the 
legal doctrines involved. It may be regarded as practically 
completing the legal doctrine of negotiability. 

The instruments of title which grew out of the warehousing 
system are closely analogous to the bill of lading, but the eco- 
nomic and legal history is absolutely distinct. These warrants, 
or warehouse receipts, arose much later than the bill of lading, 
and despite their economic significance, they have not yet ac- 
quired a legal standing comparable to the bill of lading. Further- 
more, the law of the different countries is quite distinct. There 
was apparently a parallel growth of such instruments in Holland, 
England, and France. In France and England the forms of 
the instrument were different ; in Holland the tendencies were 
at the outset essentially similar to the English tendencies, but 
the movement seems to have lost its force in the latter part 
of the eighteenth century, so that the history of the instrument 
in Holland was without notable consequences. The actual his- 
tory of the warrant is still hopelessly obscure, and the dispro- 
portionate emphasis placed upon the English system and its 
history has tended to create additional misapprehensions in a 
subject already fertile in difficulties. Hecht declares that the 
economic importance of the warrant and its legal development 
were V a product of English trade and customary mercantile 
law " ; but he does not support his contention, and the history 
of the warrant in France and in Holland would seem to lead to 
different historical conclusions. England may have been quicker 
to adopt a new device with beneficial results to her commerce, or 
the greater volume of her trade may have given a greater signifi- 
cance to a commercial system whose technical details were well 
understood in both France and Holland. It is not very satisfac- 
tory to ascribe the increase in English trade to the development 
of the warrant system. The general decline of trade in both 
France and Holland toward the close of the eighteenth century 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 841 

affords a more natural explanation of the relative importance of 
the progress of the technique of trading at this time. 

The general similarity of warrants and bills of lading and the 
frequent association of both types of instrument under the general 
term "document of title" has led some German writers to sup- 
pose that the legal properties of the instruments are the same. 
The neglect of case law is unfortunate. Both warrants and 
delivery orders are to be distinguished from bills of lading with 
respect to the legal meaning of negotiability, and the warrants 
and delivery orders differ from each other. 

" Goods in stores, free or bonded, can be made the subjects of 
security, or transfer on sales, by means of delivery orders. . . . 
A delivery order, like a cheque, assumes three parties. . . . The 
usual terms of the order are simple enough. It is, ' Deliver to 
A.B., or his order, so many goods, identified by marks and num- 
bers, or so many bushels of grain from a particular lot lying in 
your store.' It is signed by the owner, and is in favor of the 
particular party therein named. That order is not of the least 
use to the grantee until he has gone with it to the storekeeper, 
and has got the storekeeper to transfer the goods to the grantee's 
name. . .. . 

"A delivery order very often is transferred from hand to hand. 
The original grantee indorses it 'Deliver to so and so,' and 
it may be indorsed twice or thrice over. It would be a mistake, 
however, to imagine that the delivery order, though capable of 
indorsation, is a negotiable instrument. ... If you are the in- 
dorsee of a delivery order, you are not in the position of the 
holder of a negotiable instrument like a bill ; because, in the case 
of the delivery order, you are subject to all the exceptions aris- 
ing out of the real contract between the original grantor and the 
original grantee. One important consequence is that the original 
grantor of the delivery order can hold the goods for the unpaid 
price against any indorsee whatever, even against a bona fide 
indorsee for full value given." 

The Scotch iron warrants are issued by iron masters and 
couched in approximately these terms, " I will deliver so many 



842 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

tons of iron of a specified brand, to any person who shall lodge 
this document with me after such and such a date." The war- 
rants pass from hand without indorsation. They " are treated in 
practice as if they were negotiable instruments. Now, the posi- 
tion of these warrants in law, according to the older authorities, 
is that they are not negotiable instruments : the law does not, or 
did not accept or adopt them as such. ... It is attempted to 
make these iron warrants negotiable by agreeing that anybody 
who holds them for value shall be entitled absolutely to delivery, 
and that he shall have no concern with the state of accounts 
between the iron master and the original purchaser of the war- 
rant. The law says, or said, that it is not to be allowed, and 
therefore these warrants stand, or stood, in no better position in 
law than proper delivery orders. Indeed, it is doubtful if they are 
not in a worse position, because a proper delivery order is ex- 
pressed in favor of a certain named person, while the warrants 
are blank or to bearer." 

It is needless to cite the cases upon which these statements 
are based. The law thus distinguishes between delivery orders, 
the Scotch warrants, and the dock warrants of the law of England 
as typified in the East and West India dock warrants of London. 
Evidently, too, the economic significance of these instruments 
has not been limited to the field within which they can safely be 
used under a strict interpretation of the law. Agreement among 
business men and regard for such commercial usages have tended 
to give these instruments in substance the flexibility possessed in 
fact by the bill of lading. The peculiar circumstances of the rise 
of the warehousing system at London was doubtless of material 
importance in the establishment of these practices. 

III. TRANSACTIONS OF THE MODERN MARKETS 

The transactions of modern commerce which contain no ele- 
ment of speculation fall into two general classes that are distinct 
both in form and in purpose. There are various forms of arbi- 
trage dealings which are designed to secure a certain gain by 
reason of excessive differences in the prices current on different 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 843 

markets. There are various forms of hedging designed to free 
the manufacturer or middleman from the risk of a change in 
price during the process of manufacture or sale. Arbitrage deal- 
ings thus result in small but certain gains ; hedge transactions 
are properly neutral, involving neither a net gain nor a net loss. 
When the manufacturer or middleman hedges, it is his purpose 
to confine the chance of profit to his mercantile transactions. He 
avoids all risk of gain or loss by reason of changes in the price 
of the raw material in order to confine his attention to the tech- 
nical problems of the process of manufacture and sale. These 
types of non-speculative transactions are dependent upon the 
mechanism that is usually thought of in connection with specula- 
tion. The various forms of future contracts are essential, and 
the practice of buying or selling in a particular place when the 
goods are physically located elsewhere is also characteristic. 
These transactions are not possible unless there are speculative 
and spot markets drawn together in a closely organized market 
system. The non-speculative transactions involve the same tech- 4 
nical elements as the speculative transactions ; the different 
results are due to the different combinations of the basic transac- 
tions. A future contract may be speculative or non-speculative, 
or speculative for one party and non-speculative to the other. A 
short sale may constitute part of a hedge or part of a daring 
speculative coup. The meaning of a particular purchase or sale 
cannot be deduced from its form ; all its connections must be 
known. The much-discussed future contracts and short sales are 
indeed mere incidents of larger transactions, parts of a larger 
whole to which they are inseparably related. The larger aspects 
of marketing, too, are so closely associated that the non-speculative 
aspects cannot exist independently of the speculative aspects. It 
is this complex web of interdependent elements that constitutes 
the difference between the loosely related markets of the Middle 
Ages and the integrated market system of to-day. The arbitrage 
transactions and the hedge are of fundamental importance in 
maintaining the close correspondence between prices on differ- 
ent markets that is characteristic of our organized market system. 
The most typical form of arbitrage brings together a spot 



844 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

purchase and a sale under a term contract. Such a mode of dealing 
is characteristic of exporting regions where there is a keen com- 
petition for the product so that exportation is not a matter of 
course. In regions that seek a vent for a large surplus, the 
transaction is somewhat altered, though the underlying features 
are the same. Australian and Indian wheat are consigned to 
London agents to be sold on commission. Sale in some English 
or European port is assumed. Notice of the departure of the 
vessel is forwarded ; samples and documents of title will also be 
sent and will presumably arrive considerably in advance of the 
ship. The vessel may be sent out with directions to call at 
Gibraltar for orders as to final destination. The London com- 
mission agent proceeds to sell the cargo while still afloat on a 
"to arrive" contract. Purchase and sale are not simultaneous, 
and in that sense the actual character of the deal is for a time 
indeterminate. The shipment of the wheat may involve a real 
speculation or it may be sold quickly and become in essence an 
'arbitrage transaction. 

Among the various primary markets in the producing regions 
of the United States another form of transaction is not uncom- 
mon. It is not a true arbitrage deal because it does not contem- 
plate actual shipment of goods by the operator. The transaction 
is affected by a simultaneous purchase and sale of term contracts 
in the high and low markets. A term contract is bought in the 
low market, and a contract for an equal quantity sold short in 
the high market. It is assumed that the operations of other 
parties will bring the markets closer together and afford a small 
but certain gain. 

Thus let us assume that on a given day in June the price of 
September wheat on the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is 
$i per bushel, and the price on the Chicago Board of Trade for 
the same wheat is $ 1 .04, and that an arbitrageur considers this 
difference too large and anticipates a coming together of the 
two prices. Accordingly, he buys on a future contract in Min- 
neapolis and sells short in Chicago at the prices indicated. Let 
us now suppose that in the course of a week the Minneapolis 
price rises to $1.04 and the Chicago price to $1.07^ and that 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 845 

the arbitrageur closes out his transactions at these prices. By 
closing out his purchase in Minneapolis by a sale at $1.04, he 
makes 4 cents, and by covering his short sales at Chicago by a 
purchase at $1,071 he loses 3! cents, thus clearing a gross profit 
of \ cent. 

This mode of trading is also applied to other types of price 
differences, and the practice is doubtless significant, but it would 
seem that its importance to the market is somewhat different 
from that of the other forms of arbitrage. In many respects this 
type of transaction seems to be particularly adapted to maintain 
relations between different primary markets that are receiving 
supplies from the producing regions. Actual shipments from 
market to market are in such circumstances a less convenient 
means of keeping markets " in line " than changes in the flow 
of the crop from those districts which can reach both of the 
markets concerned. 

The hedge has been closely associated with a number of sig- 
nificant industrial changes. The transaction is widely used to-day 
in connection with flour-milling, meat-packing, cotton-spinning, 
and to some extent in the coffee trade. All these industries 
have been transformed or have grown up since the rise of the 
modern methods of marketing. The development of large-scale 
production in milling and packing would scarcely have been 
possible were it not for the hedges, and cotton-spinning could 
not be conducted upon such a narrow margin of profit if the 
risk of changes in value in the raw product were not eliminated. 
The nature of the change will perhaps be most readily appre- 
ciated with reference to flour-milling, as there has been a less 
general alteration of the place of the occupation in social life. 
The risk of loss to the miller through fluctuations in the price 
of grain was eliminated in the old days by transferring the risk 
to the consumer. The well-to-do and middle-class people were 
largely accustomed to buy grain and have it ground for their 
own use according to needs. The sale of raw wheat thus played 
a more prominent part in retail marketing a century and a half 
ago than it does to-day. The miller charged a small fee or took 
a portion of the meal as his toll. In the smaller towns only the 



846 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

poorer people bought finished flour or bread. In the larger towns 
the trade in flour and bread was rather more considerable, but 
even in towns like Paris and London much wheat was bought 
by townspeople for their needs and ground at their expense in 
mills near the city. The milling business was non-speculative, 
but it was necessarily conducted on a small scale with moderate 
equipment. Dependence upon local slaughter-houses was an 
equally prominent feature in the life of the past. Absence of 
refrigeration and of means of rapid transportation rendered the 
preparation of all meat products a distinctly local affair. Further- 
more, there could be no question of risk from change in values 
of the raw product in the interval between the purchase of the 
creature and the disposition of the prepared meat. There was 
no appreciable interval. The butchers' trade was thus non- 
speculative, though the consumers did not buy the live creatures. 

In the course of the last half century, milling and packing 
have become capitalistic enterprises in no small portion of the 
western world. Flour consumed throughout the United States 
and in . parts of Europe is milled in Minneapolis. Beef products 
consumed in the United States and in Europe are prepared in 
St. Louis and in Chicago. The raw material must be purchased 
months before the finished product can be sold. A change in 
market conditions might destroy entirely the mercantile profits 
of a highly efficient plant. Such enterprises can be conducted 
only if it is possible to reduce them to a non-speculative basis 
comparable to the conditions of the old craft organization of days 
gone by. The future market affords a means of avoiding the 
speculation on the raw product. 

The essential feature of the hedge is the combination of sale 
and purchase at both moments of contact with the market, both 
at the beginning of the process of manufacture and at the time 
of sale. Raw materials must be purchased for production in the 
spot market. With this transaction is coupled a term contract 
calling for the delivery of the same quantity of goods during the 
month in which the finished product will be ready for sale. The 
sale of the future is at the same price as the spot purchase. 
The miller is thus on both sides of the market. When the time 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 847 

comes for delivery of raw product under the future contract, the 
miller must go into the spot market to buy wheat. He is thus 
under an obligation to buy at the time he enters the flour market 
as a seller of finished product. At both moments he is buying 
and selling. Gains on one transaction will clearly balance losses 
on the other. The manufacturer is consequently independent of 
changes in the values of the raw materials. 

The manufacturer can manage more readily if he has a large 
contract with the government for the supply of the army or some 
such service. In this case, at the time of bidding on the con- 
tract, he knows the prices of all the future options for several 
months in advance, and he can thus calculate pretty exactly what 
his raw materials will cost. If his bid is accepted he can buy 
on future contracts for the entire period that he will be working 
on that order. The cost of his raw material will thus be settled 
at the outset. He is clear of risk and can make his money on 
the process of manufacture. 

In the old days all speculation was for rising prices. Goods 
were bought and held back from the market in expectation of a 
rise. If the market was ill informed, the holding back of goods 
might cause a considerable increase in prices, and, if the goods 
were carefully unloaded without at any time revealing the extent 
of the supply concealed, the operators might realize considerable 
profits. Such operations were a serious problem in the Parisian 
grain trade in the late seventeenth century, and probably this 
was a characteristic form of bull speculation in the older markets. 
The essence of the transaction was to curtail the visible supply, 
to have large supplies concealed in close proximity to the con- 
suming market, and to dole out these invisible supplies with 
scrupulous care. The relative isolation of different markets made 
such transactions relatively easy. The supply did not really come 
into sight until it arrived in the market place where it was to be 
sold to the consumer. In modern market systems such transac- 
tions are impossible because the supply comes into full public 
notice in the wholesale markets of the producing regions. The 
great consuming markets are to-day so well informed of possible 
supplies that they are in some cases distinctly non-speculative in 



848 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

tone. The wheat markets of London, for instance, are essen- 
tially non-speculative. The sea-board cities of the United States 
are also essentially non-speculative wheat markets. The tone of 
a modern market, however, is the product of many complex 
circumstances, so that it is impossible to generalize. 

Speculative transactions of the modern markets assume that 
the market is informed of the general circumstances of trade. 
The gains of the operators are not secured by deceiving the 
public, but are based upon the accuracy of their inferences from 
the facts available. The facts are more or less generally known. 
The general body of public information is supplemented to a 
certain extent by private effort, but it is safe to say that the 
known facts are practically accessible to anyone who really wishes 
to get them. The great traders of the modern markets owe their 
success to shrewd inferences, wide experience, and command of 
credit in the commercial community. 

Two types of speculation are now possible : speculation for a 
rise and speculation for a fall. The method of speculating for a 
rise is entirely different from the older transactions of the Middle 
Ages and the early modern periods. The speculation for a fall 
is entirely new. 

The nature of modern speculation, however, is not to be un- 
derstood from a mere designation of the contracts made on each 
side. Speculation is a continuous process based upon differing 
interpretations placed upon market conditions. In the large 
wholesale markets it has become a sort of party contest between 
" bulls " and "bears." 

The notable speculative operations of the modern exchange 
center around the general situation known as the "squeeze." 
The name is derived from the uncomfortable position the bears 
are in toward the close of a month when they have undertaken 
to deliver larger amounts of stuff than are readily to be had in 
the market. The competition of the bears for stuff to deliver on 
" short " contracts forces prices up, so that there is a double sig- 
nificance in the metaphor : it represents in part the notion that 
the bears are subjected to pressure by the bulls, in part the idea 
that the forces in the market push prices up to figures that are 



MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PRODUCE MARKETS 849 

not actually representative of existing conditions. The squeeze 
is frequently confused with the corner, particularly by outsiders 
and by academic writers. The market operators are not likely 
to use the term ''corner," and though their attempts to deny the 
occurrence of corners have not been well received, their inten- 
tion of drawing a sharp distinction between the corner and the 
squeeze would seem to be well founded. The corner is the char- 
acteristic speculative transaction of the unorganized markets. 
The operator buys actual stuff with the intent to store it for a 
while. When he has secured substantial control of the supply, 
he begins to sell at such prices as he chooses because none can 
compete with him. The only limit is the ability and disposition 
of the consumer to pay the price asked rather than do without. 
The transaction, it will be observed, rests entirely with the in- 
dividual operator. If his means are sufficient he can make a 
corner at any time. The squeeze is different in every essential 
particular. The bull operator buys both spot stuff and futures, 
but at the same time he must sell to the trade. It is his object 
to induce the bears to sell more stuff for delivery in some month 
in the future than they will then be able to secure except at 
greatly enhanced prices. Consequently, he has an interest in 
depleting the stocks on the primary market by sales to the trade. 
This continuous selling to the trade in the interval before the 
squeeze is the most essential difference between the squeeze and 
the old corner. It is also worthy of note that a squeeze opera- 
tion cannot be worked up at will by either bulls or bears. There 
will be no squeeze unless the bears sell excessive amounts on 
short contracts ; even if the bears are really too optimistic about 
the future there can be no squeeze unless the bulls are willing 
to accept the challenge. The squeeze will arise only in those 
circumstances which produce a marked difference of opinion. In 
such an operation the party whose judgment of the conditions 
was the more accurate will gain. The famous Leiter deal in 
wheat of 1898 was disastrous to Mr. Leiter; the Patten wheat 
deal in 1909 was as conspicuously successful. These operations 
arise when real scarcity occurs for reasons that were not antici- 
pated by the bears, either an unexpected shortage of crop or 



850 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

more likely an inadequate estimate of demand. The European 
demand for American wheat is variable because it depends in 
no small measure upon the harvests in other parts of the world. 
In many sections crops are not so well reported, so that wide 
differences of opinion may well exist. Both the Leiter and 
Patten operations were based upon inferences with reference to 
European demand, but Leiter failed to realize the significance of 
crop prospects. There had been several short crops, and there 
was an unusual European demand which others did not foresee. 
The growing crop, however, was promising and ultimately proved 
to be large. The final offerings of the bears were based on cer- 
tain knowledge of the abundance of the harvests in the great 
wheat-producing regions of the world. Patten was careful both 
in his wheat deal and in the cotton deal in which he was associ- 
ated in 1909-19 1 o. The last stages in the series of operations 
were in both cases dominated by the crop reports. 

These episodes are without exception the most spectacular of 
modern speculative transactions. They exhibit the working of 
the modern markets when subjected to most unusual and extreme 
conditions. Under similar circumstances the mediaeval markets 
would have failed utterly. These modern markets revealed in 
each instance a remarkably prompt understanding of the situation. 



STUDIES IN THE MARKETING OF FARM PROD- 
UCTS IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 

By Emmett K. Carver and Grafton L. Wilson, Collaborators 

in the Office of Markets of the United States Department 

of Agriculture during the Summer of 19 13 

(Printed by permission of the Office of Markets and Rural Organization, 
United States Department of Agriculture) 

CHARENTE BUTTER 
By Emmett K. Carver 

EVER since the advent of the Phylloxera in the department of 
Charente, and the consequent destruction of the vineyards, 
the cooperative creameries have been a great source of wealth to 
the farmers. These creameries have spread throughout the de- 
partment of Vendee, Deux-Sevres, the two Charentes, and Vienne. 
Those visited were in Charente and Deux-Sevres. Nearly all the 
creameries are members of an association which has as a nucleus 
the government creamery school, and their methods and organiza- 
tion are very similar throughout the country. We will take one of 
the most successful creameries, that at St. Christophe-sur-Roc, near 
Niort, and trace its butter from the milk to the consumer, and 
then compare this creamery with other creameries of the district. 

The St. Christophe creamery is the property of an association 
of farmers. Any farmer living within collecting distance of the 
creamery may become a member. 

Each morning the milk is collected in carts by employees of 
the creamery. In most creameries this is charged to the farmer, 
but the creamery in question, does it for nothing. The cream is 
separated immediately on collection and the skim milk is returned 
to the farmers the next day when the whole milk is collected. 



852 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The creamery pays as much as possible for the milk. During 
July, 191 3, when butter was very low, it paid 12 centimes a liter 
(2.62 cents a quart) and returned the skim milk. In winter it 
pays much more (up to 19 centimes a liter or 4.15 cents a quart) 
both because the price of butter is higher then and because the 
milk is richer. In summer it takes about 20.35 liters of milk to 
make 1 kilo of butter, while in winter it takes as little as 16 or 
1 61 liters. 

The cream is allowed to stand over night and is churned the 
next morning. The butter, excepting a small amount reserved 
for local sale, is put up in 10-kilo pats and packed in wicker 
baskets. The butter is first wrapped in linen with the stamp 
of the creamery on it and packed in straw in the baskets. The 
total cost of the baskets, straw, and cloth is about 25 centimes 
(4.8 cents) apiece. The baskets are sometimes used twice, but 
not when they have been sent to Paris. 

The shipping to Paris is done through the Association of Co- 
operative Creameries. This association is composed of one hun- 
dred and twenty creameries in the department above mentioned. 
Each of these pays an entrance fee of 1000 francs. The society 
takes contracts for coal, cloth, etc. It has started a mutual insur- 
ance society. It obtained from the government the establishment 
of the creamery school at Surgeres and contributes a considerable 
amount towards its maintenance. The State Railroad Company 
has given it the privilege of transforming nineteen freight cars 
into refrigerated cars, and hauls butter in them for the same price 
as in ordinary cars. The association provides the ice and charges 
the creameries 1 centime a kilo extra for transportation in these 
cars. The refrigerated cars are sent to Paris by fast freight, 
leaving the butter country at about 5 p.m. and reaching Paris 
at 4 a.m. 

The butter is carted immediately to the Halles or central mar- 
ket. The Halles are six huge pavilions devoted to the wholesale 
and retail provisionment of the city. One of these pavilions is 
used for the wholesaling of butter and eggs. All of the selling 
is done in commission by the mandataires or commissioners. The 
government forbids the mandataires to engage in trade of any 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 853 

kind on their own account and fixes the commission at 3 per cent. 
On each basket of butter brought into the market the government 
levies a tax of 10 centimes, called the abri tax. These abri taxes 
are the only charges made by the government to the mandat aires. 

During the early part of the morning the butter is sold by pri- 
vate contract, but at 9.30 a.m. the sale by auction begins. The 
baskets of butter are placed on a long table in front of the auc- 
tioneer's stand, where they can be tasted by the prospective 
buyers. The basket nearest the auctioneer is placed on his stand 
and the sale begins. Contrary to the English method of auctioning, 
the seller begins at a high price and works down. If the seller 
knows that the buyers who are apt to buy the particular brand of 
butter under the hammer are absent he will discontinue lowering 
the price and put the basket aside for a better time. The buyers 
at the auction sale are retail merchants, but wholesalers sometimes 
buy by private contract. A triple record of each sale is kept. One 
record goes to the creamery, one is kept by the auctioneer, and 
one goes to the police. 

Besides the commission of 3 per cent there are several other 
expenses connected with the selling at Paris. They are : 

Octroi or city tax 14.50 francs per 100 kilos 

Cartage from the station to the market . 10 francs per ton 

Unloading and weighing 1.50 francs per 100 kilos 

A bri or market tax 1 franc per 1 00 kilos 

If by any chance the butter is kept over night a fee of 5 cen- 
times a basket is charged. These expenses are all charged to the 
creamery. 

There are several butter merchants not officially connected with 
the market who have offices in the immediate neighborhood. 
These men sell for the same commission as the mandataires, but 
'they do not charge anything corresponding to the abri or for the 
unloading and weighing. 

The retailers who buy the butter generally run stores that sell 
nothing but butter, cheese, eggs, milk, etc. Sometimes they rent 
stalls in the retail part of the Halles for 3 francs a day and sell 
their butter there. St. Christophe butter sold for about 3.05 francs 



8 5 4 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



a kilo (26.6 cents per pound) at the auction sales during the first 
part of August. The retailers in the market sold it for 3.80 francs 
to 3.60 francs a kilo (33.2 cents to 31.4 cents per pound) accord- 
ing to the length of time it had stayed on their counters. The 
retailers in stores generally sold it for 4 francs to 3.80 francs a 
kilo (34.9 cents to 33.2 cents per pound). 

A vertical section from farmer to consumer, taken August 1, 
191 3, is as follows : 



Francs per Kilo 
of Butter 



Dollars per 
Pound 



Farmer gets for 20.35 liters at 12 centimes . . . 
Creamery margin (collecting, making, packing, etc.) 

Freight to Paris \ . 

Refrigerated cars 

Octroi 

Cartage 

Unloading and weighing 

Abri 

Commission (grocer pays 3.05 francs) 

Grocer's margin 

Price consumer pays 



2.44200 
.24915 

•09235 
.00500 
.14500 
.01000 
.01500 
.01000 
.09150 
.85000 



2135 
0218 
0081 
0004 
0126 
0009 
0013 
0009 
0080 
0732 



3.90000 



3407 



This table shows the creamery's margin to be but 24.9 cen- 
times. As shown by the balance sheet for 1912, the average cost 
of making 1 kilo of butter is almost 36 centimes. The reason 
for the loss is that the price of butter was lower than it had been 
any time since the creamery had started, and the creamery still 
paid its regular summer price of 12 centimes a liter. It means 
that the next month they would have to keep their milk price 
down even though the price of butter went up. 

A good example of cooperative creamery that does not belong 
to the association of creameries is at Baignes, in Charente. It 
was started about twenty years ago when the cooperative move- 
ment first started in France. This creamery paid 12 centimes 
a liter during July, 191 3. It generally took 22 liters to make 
1 kilo of butter. Thus the creamery pays 2.64 francs for enough 
milk to make 1 kilo of butter, but if we subtract from this the 
value of the skim milk (2 centimes a liter) we get 2.20 francs 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 855 

which the farmer gets per kilo for the butter. The creamery 
utilizes the skim milk for making casein and then uses the whey 
for feeding hogs, of which it owns about 900. This creamery 
sells its butter wherever it can find a market — to Bordeaux, An- 
gouleme, Paris, and other cities. Butter sold to Paris is sent 
by parcel post directly to the retailer at Paris, the retailer pay- 
ing all expenses. By selling in this way the creamery could 
clear 2.80 francs per kilo. The baskets in which the butter is 
sent are paid for by the grocer (25 centimes apiece) but he can 
sell them for 5 centimes. Thus they cost him 20 centimes. 

A list of the items of expense that go to the making of the 
consumer's price is as follows : 





Francs per Kilo of Butter 


Payment of milk to farmer minus value of skim milk . 

Cost of making (not including packing) 

Packing 


2.20 
.60 
.025 
.125 

.02 C 




Cartage in Paris 


Octroi or city tax in Paris 


.140 




3-H5 

.785 








3.900 





It will be seen from this table that the grocer pays more than 
did the grocer who bought the St. Christophe butter, while he 
sold it for about the same price. It is less trouble for him to 
buy the butter this way, however, than to buy it at the auction 
sale in the market. 

These two creameries serve as types for the two methods of 
marketing we found. For the most part the organization of the 
creameries was like one or the other of those discussed. We 
found one creamery, however, that differed somewhat in that it 
was gradually limiting its membership by increasing the entrance 
fee. Last year it was 10 francs a cow; next year it will be 
12 francs a cow, and so on. 



856 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

BUTTER IN ALLIER 

By Grafton L. Wilson 

DAIRY BUTTER IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ALLIER 

Case I 

Place of production Montmarault and vicinity 

Place of consumption Moulins 

Average price received by producer . . 2.10 francs per kilo 

Average price paid by consumer . . . 3.00 francs per kilo 

Difference between prices 0.90 francs 

Number of intermediate steps .... Two 

Freight, Montmarault to Moulins . . . 0.025 francs per kilo 

Price paid by grocer 2.55 francs per kilo 

Middleman's margin 0.425 francs per kilo 

Grocer's margin 0.45 francs per kilo 

Case II 

Place of production Environs of Moulins 

Place of consumption Moulins 

Average price received by producer . . 2.50 francs per kilo 

Average price paid by consumer . . . 2.80 francs per kilo 

Difference between prices 0.30 francs 

Number of intermediate steps .... One 

Market retailer's margin 0.30 francs 

Case III 

Place of production Environs of Moulins 

Place of consumption Moulins 

Price received by producer 2.90 francs per kilo 

Price paid by consumer 2.90 francs per kilo 

Number of intermediate steps .... None 

Case I. Methods of sale by prodiccer to middleman. In Case I 
the peasant women bring the butter in donkey carts to the mar- 
kets in the small towns. These are held in some places once 
and in others twice a week. The butter is carried into the mar- 
ket place in small baskets, and a tax of from 10 to 20 centimes 
is levied upon them according to their length. The buyers or 
middlemen take positions in different parts of the market, and 
the keen competition among them, combined with the sharpness 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 857 

of the peasants, keeps the prices at about the same level. Very 
little attention seems to be paid by the buyers to the quality of 
the butter, all peasants receiving the same price at any given 
time all through the market. In the hour for which the selling 
lasted the market price varied through a range of 40 centimes, 
the prices being 1.80 to 2.20 francs per kilo. 

Packing for shipment. The butter is brought by the peasants 
in pats varying from 1 to 5 kilos in weight. These are wrapped 
by the middlemen in damp cloth or waxed paper and placed, for 
shipment, in large wicker baskets containing straw and holding 
about 100 kilos of butter. 

Sale by the middlemen to the grocers, etc. The middlemen 
visit, during the week, four or five of these local markets and 
sell in large quantities to grocers, hotels, and restaurants, in the 
larger towns of the region. Most of the Allier butter is locally 
consumed, though in good seasons some is shipped to Lyons and 
other places. Practically none is sold on the market at Paris, 
where it is considered of a very inferior quality and brings only 
160 or 180 francs the 100 kilos. Paris is resorted to only to 
avoid waste in the case of a very large supply. 

Case II. Sale hi retail market at Motdins. At Moulins a 
market is held in the covered market buildings on Tuesday and 
Friday. Butter is sold to the consumers by women who are regu- 
lar tenants, holding stalls at an average rent of about 12 francs 
per month. They procure their supply from the producers of 
the vicinity. The maximum retail price is 3.20 francs the kilo, 
but the present price of 2.80 francs is considered good. 

Case III. Sale by the producers in market at Moulins. On 
Friday the character of the market changes somewhat, as, in 
addition to the above-mentioned retailers, there are large numbers 
of peasant women. They bring in their own butter in baskets 
and sell by \- or 1 -pound pats to the consumers. They pay 30 
centimes for their sittings in the market. Their prices were 
slightly higher than those received by the regular tenants, 
probably due to the greater freshness of their butter. 



858 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

NORMANDY BUTTER 
By Emmett K. Carver 

The province of Normandy, in the northwestern part of France, 
is the richest grazing district of the country. Butter and cheese 
are its chief products, although beef, milk,- and cream are also 
exported. A great many horses are also raised there. The rich- 
ness of the land can be well shown by its price. Average pas- 
ture land sold for about 4500 francs a hectare or $360 an acre. 
Land planted in orchards was worth very much more, say $600 
to $700 an acre. Most of the farms were of about a hundred 
acres. The prosperity of the country is almost proverbial in 
France. It is not at all uncommon for a farmer to rent a farm 
worth $30,000 or $40,000 and to buy it after ten or fifteen 
years. About half the farms are cultivated by their owners and 
half are rented. 

There are various methods of making butter in Normandy. 
About half of it is made by the farmers, but there are quite a 
few cooperative creameries, and a few creameries called coopera- 
tive-industrial, that is, owned by private persons but operated on 
a more or less cooperative basis. As these methods are carried 
on side by side, there can be little difference in the profit to the 
farmer by the different methods or he would change to the most 
profitable method. 

Dairy Butter 

The marketing of dairy butter in Normandy may be roughly 
outlined as follows. (1) The butter is made on the farms by the 
women, (2) sold at the public markets to men who buy for a 
butter " factory " or packing house, (3) shipped to those estab- 
lishments by cart or rail, (4) graded and packed, (5) sold to 
wholesalers or retailers. We made a fairly detailed study of the 
various steps. 

As before mentioned, most of the farms are fairly large, sup- 
porting twenty to forty cows each. These cows are all of the 
Normandy race, — yielding good beef and veal. Their milk, 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 859 

however, is not so rich as some varieties, 3.7 per cent being a 
good percentage for butter-fat. Nearly all of the calves are kept 
for exportation or other purposes, so the skim milk is used in 
feeding them. The milking is done two or sometimes three 
times a day by the women. Sometimes the skimming is done 
by allowing the cream to rise, but generally hand separators are 
used. The churning is done on the morning of the market, 
which happens either once or twice a week. 

After churning, the women take the butter to town. Here 
they generally have to pay an octroi or tax of about 5 centimes 
a kilo (| cent a pound) before they can enter the market place. 
The buyers are lined up in the section designated for them, and 
to them the women take the butter. The buyers pay according to 
the quality, which they ascertain by the smell, and a great deal of 
dickering is done before any transaction takes place. 

The buyers are agents for the butter-packing establishments, 
of which there are quite a number. The three most important 
as well as most representative will be described. 

The Union des beurreries de France is a large company 
of 4,000,000 francs (about $800,000) capital. It owns several 
creameries and butter-packing factories in various parts of France. 
It has branch offices in Paris, London, and other large cities. 
One of its largest factories is at Vire, in a very rich grazing 
district of Normandy. When the butter is brought in from the 
markets it is tasted by an expert and graded into four quali- 
ties. Each of these grades is put into a special mixer and 
kneaded until quite uniform. It is then packed. The butter that 
is to be shipped to Paris is packed in 10-kilo (22-pound) wicker 
baskets ; that which goes to England is packed in wicker baskets 
of better quality, each holding 28 pounds, or else in wooden 
boxes containing six 4-pound rolls. The wicker baskets for Paris 
cost 25 centimes (5 cents) apiece. Those for England cost 1.25 
francs (25 cents). The boxes for England cost about .45 francs 
(9 cents) apiece. Before shipment the butter is placed in a cold- 
storage room and thoroughly chilled. When sent in large quanti- 
ties it is sent in refrigerated cars. The factory at Vire packs about 
16 tons of butter a day in summer and 10 to 12 tons in winter. 



860 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

An establishment somewhat different in character is the factory 
of Lepelletier at Carentan, in Manche. This factory treats up to 
30 tons of butter a day during the summer season, but very 
much less in winter. Much of this butter they put into cold 
storage, counting on a rise in price from summer to winter of 
about 1 franc a kilo (8-| cents a pound). They count the cost 
of cold storage as 5 centimes a kilo per month, or about 4 cents 
a pound for eight months. They say that this is not done enough 
to change the price. This establishment deals in all sorts of 
milk goods, such as pasteurized cream, " homogenized " milk 
for invalids, and also in fancy butter made at their special 
creamery. So far as the bulk of the trade goes, however, it is 
exactly the same as the Union des beurreries. 

The Bretel Brothers at Valognes in Manche do a business 
very similar to this, but they deal almost solely in butter. Their 
business is even larger than that of Lepelletier. 

Each of these three butter factories sells its product to Eng- 
land in a different way. The Union des beurreries has a branch 
office in London. Lepelletier's factory sells through an agent in 
London who sells to wholesalers. The Bretel Brothers sell 
through a large butter house in London (Lovell and Christmas), 
which sells to wholesalers, retailers, and also to agents who sell 
to wholesalers. Each of these three London houses is sole agent 
for his particular butter in England. 

Very little, if any, French butter is sold outside of London, 
however, for the Danish butter has practically monopolized the 
rest of the country. These three London houses meet once a 
week and decide at what price their butter shall be sold to the 
grocer. Two of these houses (the Union des beurreries de France 
and the agent for Bretel Freres, namely, Lovell and Christmas) 
sell both to retailers and to other wholesalers. When they sell to 
retailers they charge their fixed price, say 12 s. a dozen pounds, 
but when they sell to other wholesalers they give a rebate of 3 d. 
on each dozen pounds bought, thus the wholesalers can make a 
profit of only 3 d. a dozen pounds when they sell. 

We were able to find out the commission price to only one 
of these firms. Lovell and Christmas get 3 per cent on the 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 



861 



grocer's price from Bretel Freres, and pay the rebates out of this. 
This same commission probably holds throughout. 

The kind of butter most seen in London was the French 
butter packed in 24-pound boxes, known as French rolls. This 
butter, during the middle of August, 191 3, cost the grocer 
13s., 12 s., 11 s., and 10 s. 6 d., a dozen pounds for the four differ- 
ent qualities. The grocers generally sell at an advance of 3 s. a 
dozen pounds. 

The following is a vertical section of the hands through which 
the butter generally passes with the cost which each adds, taken 
August 16, 191 3, for the second highest quality butter. 





Dollars per Pound 


Price to farmer (2.30 francs a kilo) 


.2008 


Cost of buying, mixing, and packing, and packer's profits . . 
Freight to London (Valognes to Cherbourg to* Southampton 

to London) (30 s. a ton) 

Commission 3 per cent (this includes all costs of selling to 


.0288 

.0032 
.0072 








Price to consumer is. 3d. per pound 


.3000 



Most of the increments in this table are fixed. The profits of 
the packer, however, vary from summer to winter. In winter 
the price to the farmer goes up more than the price in England, 
for the Normandy butter has a good sale in Paris in winter. 
The packers could make more in winter by selling more of their 
butter in Paris, but they would lose English customers and so 
spoil their summer's trade. 

We did not count the octroi in this table as it does not always 
come into the expense. When it does so it merely reduces the 
price to the farmer by about 5 centimes a kilo (.43 cents a 
pound). 

Creamery Butter 

The creameries visited in Normandy were the Laiterie coope- 
rative des fermiers d Lsigny, the Laiterie de Cartigny, the Lai- 
terie cooperative de Chef-du-Pont, the Laiterie de Parfours, and 
the Laiterie de Sottevast. 



862 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The Laiterie cooperative des fermiers d' Isigny is probably 

the finest creamery in France. It is situated in the town of 

Isigny, which has always been famous for its fine butter, so the 

creamery gets all the prestige of the name Isigny. It is owned 

by the principal citizen of the town, who runs it very efficiently 

on a more or less cooperative basis. The milk is brought to 

the creamery each morning by the farmers. It is weighed and a 

sample is taken out and put in a bottle bearing the name of the 

farmer who supplied the milk. Each week this is analyzed for 

butter-fat, and the farmers are paid accordingly. The creamery 

pays for the milk according to the price it receives for the butter. 

For the amount of milk that will make I kilo of butter it pays 

the price it receives for that butter minus I centime (^ cent) 

a kilo of milk for the making of the butter. If the farmers 

want their skim milk they pay 2 centimes a kilo for it. Most 

of the skim milk is, however, used for making casein. The 

creamery receives, in summer, an average of 3.50 francs a kilo 

(30I cents per pound). As it takes, on the average, almost 23 

kilos of milk to make 1 kilo of butter, the price of milk is about 

3. ^o — .2 ^ 

— : — francs per liter or 14.2 centimes per kilo (3 cents a quart). 

2 3 

The butter-making is done under very cleanly conditions. The 
cream is pasteurized as soon as separated, and inoculated with a 
special ferment which starts the butter and imparts the proper 
taste. The churning is done each day with the milk of the day 
before. The best American churns are used. The butter is 
packed in wicker baskets, each holding 10 kilos (22 pounds), 
after being weighed and wrapped in linen. A layer of straw 
between the butter and the basket protects it from the heat. 

Nearly all of this butter is sent to Paris, as that is the only place 
where butter as expensive as this could find a market. Most of 
the butter is sold by contract to the fancy restaurants and stores, 
although at times some of it is sent to the public market. 

The butter is carted to the station by the creamery's employees 
and is sent to the buyer by fast freight, which means twelve hours 
to Paris. The charges for the transportation vary from 72 cen- 
times a basket in large quantities to 1.25 francs per single basket. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 863 

The retail price of this butter in summer is almost invariably 
6 francs a kilo whether the wholesale price is high or low. In 
winter the retail price goes up as well as the wholesale price. 

A vertical section through the various stages of the handling 
is as follows : 





Francs per Kilo 


Dollars per Pound 


Price the farmer gets for 22.7 kilos of milk 
minus 2 centimes per kilo for the return of 
the skim milk, that is, for the butter made 
from his milk 

Creamery margin including cartage to station 

Freight to Paris (single basket) 

Cartage to grocery 


2-75 
.69 
.125 
.025 

2.41 


.241 
.060 
.Oil 

.002 
.209 




Price to consumer 


6.000 


•523 





The creamery at Cartigny, owned by the Union des beurrenes 
de France, makes butter very much like this and sells it at the 
same price, but pays 1 centime a kilo less for the milk. It 
sells its butter through the office of the company at Paris. As 
the town of Cartigny is in Isigny, this creamery gets the name 
Isigny to help it sell its butter. 

A better sample of the average Normandy creamery can be found 
at Chef-du-Pont, about fifteen miles from Isigny. There, within a 
stone's throw of each other, are two creameries, one a cooperative 
and one an industrial. They both get their milk from the same 
neighborhood, and both get the same price for their butter, yet 
the industrial creamery is slowly gaining ground over the other. 

The cooperative creamery is organized in practically the same 
way as the Danish creameries. Instead of paying for the milk 
at a fixed price it divides the profits each month in proportion 
to the amount of butter-fat supplied. This generally amounts to 
12 centimes a kilo for average milk in summer, but the price is 
considerably higher in winter. The industrial creamery is owned 
by English capitalists and is managed by a Frenchman and an 
Englishman. It makes butter, casein, condensed milk, and evap- 
orated cream, making whatever there happens to be the greatest 



864 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



demand for. It treats about 40 tons of milk a day, collecting 
it from a radius of up to 15 kilometers in motor vans. The 
cooperative creamery treats about 23 tons of milk a day. 

These creameries pay about 12 centimes a kilo for milk con- 
taining 3.85 per cent butter-fat. This would make the price of 
enough milk to make one kilo of butter 2.65 francs (51 cents). 
They receive, as a rule, 2.90 francs per kilo of butter, which 
leaves 25 centimes to pay the expenses of making, packing, etc. 
These creameries keep the skim milk, however, which is generally 
worth about 2 centimes a kilo. This makes about 70 centimes 
to pay for the making of 1 kilo of butter. 

These creameries sell wherever they find a buyer. Butter sold 
to Paris is first chilled and then sent by fast freight over night. 
The freight varies from 65 centimes to 1.25 francs a basket. 

The Paris retailers sell it at an average price of 4 francs. 
When the butter is very fresh it brings a little more ; when 
slightly old a little less. A vertical section through the steps 
through which a kilo of this butter passes is as follows (the 
butter was sold to a small Parisian seller of butter, eggs, etc.) : 





Francs per Kilo 


Dollars per Pound 




of Butter 


of Butter 


Prices paid to the farmer for 22 kilos of milk 






at 12 centimes minus 2 centimes per kilo 






for the value of the skim milk 


2.20 


.192 


Cost of making (collection of milk, making 






butter, packing, and hauling) 


.70 


.061 


Freight to Paris 


.125 
.025 

•95 




Cartage at Paris 




Grocer's margin 


.083 






4.000 


•349 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 865 

DANISH BUTTER IN ENGLAND 
By Emmett K. Carver 

Danish butter brings the highest wholesale price of any 
standard butter in England and is sold in very large quantities. 
Its desirability is due as much to its uniform quality as to its 
good flavor and keeping qualities. 

The quantities of butter imported into England from Denmark 
and other countries show that Denmark sends to England far 
more than does any other one country. In fact about two-fifths 
of the total quantity imported by England comes from Denmark. 

IMPORTS OF BUTTER 

Denmark 1,707,178 cwt. 1 

Russia . . . . 638,284 cwt. 

Sweden 360,357 cwt. 

France 171,080 cwt. 

Australia 896,085 cwt. 

New Zealand . 276,446 cwt. 

4,049,430 cwt. 

All others 253,262 cwt. 

Total 4,302,692 cwt. 

As the creameries in Denmark are nearly all alike we will 
take the Orbaeck Creamery as a typical example. This creamery 
is owned by the farmers of the neighborhood, each one owning 
one or more shares. All divisions of profits are. paid in propor- 
tion to the quantities of milk supplied and not according to shares. 

The milk is collected daily by the creamery's men. It is 
immediately separated and the skim milk is returned the same 
morning. The butter-making is done according to the most 
modern methods under the advice of a government expert. 

The price paid for the milk varies according to the price of 
butter. The usual reckoning is that they pay for 28 kilos of milk 
the price of 1 kilo of butter. As it only takes 25.5 kilos of milk 
to make 1 kilo of butter it takes one eleventh of the price of the 

1 The hundredweight here is 112 pounds. 



866 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

butter to pay for its making. The farmers pay for the return 
of the skim milk at the rate of 2 ore a kilo, but this is almost 
exactly the rate at which the surplus is divided, so we can neglect 
both the surplus and the price of the skim milk. 

The packing is done in a uniform way throughout the country. 
The butter is packed in barrels containing 1 1 2I pounds (the 
one half pound is added to allow for evaporation). 

Nearly all of the butter is sold on contracts bearing relation to 
the Copenhagen quotations. These quotations have existed for 
twenty years or more, and, although a good deal of opposition 
has been made to them, they continue to be used by nearly all 
the buyers. They are made up as follows : The committee of the 
Chamber of Commerce at Copenhagen meets every Thursday 
afternoon and decides whether the condition of the English and 
German market requires a raising or a lowering of the prices. 
This committee is composed of butter dealers, who keep the 
price as high as they can and still sell all the butter they wish. 
All of the contracts for butter are based on these quotations, but 
competition among buyers has resulted in an overprice being paid 
for the butter. Since this overprice is universal in Denmark, the 
committee on quotations makes allowance for it and quotes a lower 
price than the price actually paid. About ten years ago this over- 
price, was so large that the quotations were about 15 per cent too 
low. The farmers made such strenuous objectiorl that the quota- 
tions were raised to the proper level. At present the quotations 
are about 2 kroner too low. We enclose a clipping from The 
Grocer concerning these quotations. 

THE GROCER AUGUST 10, 1912 

COPENHAGEN BUTTER QUOTATION 

The Negotiations in Denmark 

On July 27 we announced that delegates from all the dairy organizations 
in Denmark had met at O dense in the previous week and formed a Central 
Dairy Union for the whole country, to operate as from January 1, 191 3. The 
butter-quotation question was considered, and the meeting resolved to inform 
the Copenhagen Chamber of Commerce that its representatives would con- 
tinue to take part in the fixing of the quotation on condition that the dairy- 
farming interests had four voting members on the committee, and that the 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 867 

merchants' voting members were reduced to three, their fourth member being 
the chairman of the committee and having no vote. It was further decided 
that if the Chamber failed to accept this offer the Butter Statistics Committee 
would be called upon to fix a weekly quotation at O dense, if possible in 
conjunction with butter exporters. 

Our Copenhagen correspondent now writes : The Statistics Committee of 
the Danish dairy farmers' organizations held a meeting at Odense on Saturday, 
in order to discuss the following communication from the Copenhagen Chamber 
of Commerce. The Committee agreed to accept the offer from the Chamber, 
and in the meantime to continue their cooperation on the previous basis and 
to express their willingness to continue the negotiations about future arrange- 
ments. The communication from the Copenhagen Chamber of Commerce was 
as follows : 

" The committee, having had the opportunity of consulting with the 
Danish butter exporters, through their organization, begs to give the follow- 
ing answer : 

" The Copenhagen butter quotation has this year existed thirty-four years, 
and during this long time has maintained its reputation and importance, besides 
serving as a basis for account sales in relation to the Danish butter producers 
(that is, as a buyer quotation) ; also has served as a sale quotation to the Eng- 
lish receivers. The natural consequence of this double position has been this, 
that the quotation has now and again been subjected to strong attacks from 
diverse sides, but in spite of this it has by degrees developed into such an im- 
portant price regulator for the sales of Danish butter, that it might be no less 
to the interests of Danish dairy-farming than to those of the Danish butter 
trade, that this quotation was maintained. The Committee, however, is unable 
to accept the Dairy Statistics Committee's proposal as to the formation of the 
committee which is to fix the Copenhagen butter quotation, whereby the com- 
mercial element of a necessity would be in the minority. Since 1 884, farming 
representatives have assisted at the quotation, originally only as exercising a 
kind of control, from 1887 with the right to vote; and after the agreement 
arrived at in the spring of 1906 between the organizations of agriculture and 
dairy-farming on the one hand and the committee on the other, the farming 
section and the merchant section have an equal number of votes in the quota- 
tion. Hereby a natural balance of proportion between the buying and selling 
interests has been maintained, which the committee cannot upset. Also, for 
this reason, that the Union of Exporters of Danish Butter has unanimously 
decided that they will not agree to an arrangement such as that proposed by 
the Statistics Committee. As regards the British butter merchants, it might 
also be of definite importance that the Copenhagen quotation maintains the 
character of a commercial quotation, whereby it has gained its prestige. As, 
on the other hand, it might easily prove highly detrimental to Danish interests, 
both, the producers' and the merchants' interests, if an agricultural quota- 
tion actually were established in addition to the Copenhagen quotation, the 



868 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

committee in accordance with the distinct desires of the Butter Exporter's 
Union, as also with the wishes of the Committee always to meet to the utmost 
the dairy-farmers in this question of great national importance, makes free 
to invite the Statistics Committee, as soon as possible, to enter into negotia- 
tions about continued cooperation for the fixing of the Copenhagen quotation. 
In this connection the committee at the same time admits that the alteration 
of the communications about the results of the statistics, which has been passed 
by the agricultural organizations, points in a direction which may facilitate 
negotiations. In the hope that such cooperation can be arranged to mutual 
satisfaction at forthcoming negotiations, it is, in conclusion, submitted that the 
present quotation be continued as heretofore until the result of such negotia- 
tions be known, so that the continuity of such importance in this matter as 
regards the English market may be maintained." 

As will be seen by this clipping, the quotations are not satis- 
factory to everyone. The Danish dairy farmers' organization has 
started rival quotations, but as yet they are very little used. They 
make no allowance for overprice to the creameries. To show the 
comparison between the two quotations a sample quotation for 

s 4> y 3* e> • Copenhagen, Thursday 

Butter. Two kroner higher. The top official quotation is now 102 kroner 
per 50 kilos, and equal to about 114s. per hundredweight. English money at 
the exchange of 18.19 kroner. The price last year at this time was 118s. 56. 
The Copenhagen butter quotation issued by the Committee of Statistics, 
103 kroner per 50 kilos. 

(Before the f.o.b. prices can be obtained the current overprice to the dairies, 
cost of freight to the port of shipment, working expenses, and profit to the 
shipper must be added. This applies to both quotations, but the Committee 
for Statistics does not recognize overprice in its quotations.) 

There are three ways of selling butter that is to be sent to 
England. 

1. By selling to an English company through one of its 
Denmark agencies. 

2. By selling directly to an agent or wholesale house in London 
or other large city. 

3. By selling to the Danish Cooperative Selling Society, which 
sells to agents or wholesalers in England. 

There are two large English houses that buy through their 
men in Denmark, namely, the Cooperative Wholesale Society 
and the Maypole Dairy Company. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 

The Cooperative Wholesale Society supplies nearly all the 
cooperative stores in England with goods of all kinds, from 
candy to agricultural machinery. This society brings in about a 
third of all the Danish butter that comes to England as well as 
some other butters. It buys its butter through an agent in 
Denmark who . contracts to take all the butter of some particular 
creameries at a price bearing a certain relation to the Copenhagen 
quotation. The butter is generally shipped directly from Denmark 
to the store from which it is to be retailed out, unless the store 
is near Manchester. In this latter case the butter is shipped to 
Manchester by a special train from Hull or Newcastle and dis- 
tributed from there. The society buys at the same price other 
firms do and sells at about the same price that the ordinary 
wholesaler pays, and pays, moreover, a dividend of 4d. on the 
£ (or 1.65 per cent), which amounts to 2 s. a hundredweight 
(112 pounds). 

The cooperative societies that retail the butter are generally well 
organized and successful. They do a regular grocery business and 
often have other departments also, such as fuel, shoes, dry goods, 
hardware, etc. They generally pay a dividend of 2 to 3 s. on 
the £ (10 to 15 per cent) on the merchandise bought of them. 
We enclose sample rule books, etc., of some of these societies. 

A vertical section through the various hands which handle this 
butter, taken about September 1, 191 3, is shown in the table on 
the next page. 

The table shows that the total difference between what the 
farmer gets for the butter as it is in his milk and what the con- 
sumer pays in the grocery store is about 4 cents a pound. 
This is by far the smallest difference that occurs under any of 
the methods of sale we have looked into. 

Next in importance to the Cooperative Wholesale Society as 
an importer of Danish butter is the Maypole Dairy Company. 
This is a company which owns seven or eight hundred retail 
grocery stores in various parts of England. They sell large quan- 
tities of butter, tea, and margarine, but do not deal in vegetables 
as our grocers do. This company buys its butter in Denmark 
through a resident director, and ships directly to the stores that 



87o 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Shillings per 
Hundredweight 



Prices 



Dollars per 100 
Pounds 



Prices 



Increases 



Price farmer gets 

Cost of making and packing . . . . . 

Price to creamery . 

Freight to Manchester 

C. W. S. margin minus dividend at 1.66 

per cent . . 

C. W. S. price minus dividend .... 
Grocers' margin minus 12.5 per cent 

dividend 

Freight to grocery store 

Grocers' price minus dividend at 12.5 

per cent 



105/6 
116/- 

119/6 

125/- 



10/6 
2/6 
1/- 



5/- 
0/6 



22.60 
24.85 

25.60 
26.78 



2.25 

•535 + 
.212 + 



1.07 
.107 



19/6 



19/6 



4.1; 



4-17 + 



Difference between price to farmer and to consumer = 19/6 per 112 pounds or 
$4.18 per 100 pounds 



need it. Their price is always lower than the price of any other 
private store. During August, 191 3, they sold butter for is. 2d. 
(or 28 cents a pound) while the ordinary stores sold it for is. 46.. 
(32 cents a pound). 

The competitors of this company say that it sells its butter at 
this low figure only to make a reputation for cheapness, and that 
it makes its loss good by its margarine sales. 

A view of the buying and selling price is as follows : 



Price farmer gets . 
Price creamery gets 
Price consumer pays 



104/6 per cwt. or $22.40 per 100 pounds 
115/- per cwt. or 24.61 per 100 pounds 
130/- per cwt. or 27.85 per 100 pounds 



25/6 



$545 



This table shows the difference in price to be 25 s. 6d. per 
112-pound cask. Of this, 10 s. 6d. goes to the making of the 
butter and about 2 s. 6d. for freight (for London). This leaves 
12 s. 6d. margin for the Maypole Dairy Company. Of course this 
margin changes frequently, as the retail prices are not changed 
with every change in wholesale prices. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 871 

We will now take the second method of selling butter from 
Denmark to England, namely, by selling directly to an agent or 
wholesale house in London or other large city. 

For London most of the butter is brought in by provision im- 
porters or agents, as they are called, who have their offices in or 
near Tooley Street at one end of London Bridge. These firms 
import bacon, hams, lard, cheese, eggs, and some canned goods, 
as well as butter. As a rule they sell only to wholesale dealers, 
but sometimes they deal with large retailers. Tradition has it 
that the Tooley Street firms are importers only and that they 
sell their goods to wholesalers living in Smithfield. The Smith- 
field houses are supposed to be the distributive wholesalers who 
sold the goods to the grocer. Although this distinction still 
holds roughly, the two sorts of houses are gradually becoming 
more and more the same. 

The trading in butter and other such goods is done in the 
Home and Foreign Produce Exchange. The chief market day 
is on Friday and that afternoon after the selling is finished the 
committee on quotations issues its weekly quotations of prices. 
These quotations are so accurate that many contracts are based 
on them. The way in which they are made is this : the com- 
mittee is composed of members from both the buying and selling 
elements of the exchange. The members are chosen in some 
irregular rotation by the secretary, and no one knows who is to 
be chosen next. On Thursdays the secretary issues a blank form 
to each member of the exchange, and on this the members put 
a record of their sales and their membership number. The blanks 
are returned in sealed envelopes to the secretary, who copies the 
sales off onto another sheet of paper. Then the committee meets 
and looks over the copy of the list of transactions and if anyone 
of them doubts that any transaction actually took place he says 
so. All the transactions that are doubted the secretary looks into, 
sometimes by demanding to see an account of the transaction and 
sometimes by merely interviewing the buyer or seller concerned. 
All transactions that actually took place go into the making of 
the quotations. The following is a sample quotation. 



872 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

THE GROCERS' GAZETTE AUGUST, 16, 1913 

OFFICIAL MARKET REPORT 

The following was issued by the Committee of the Home and Foreign 
Produce Exchange, Hibernia Chambers, London Bridge, S. E., at 2 o'clock 
on Friday : — 

Bacon. — Irish, lean sizeable, 81 s., 84s., 86s.; lean stout, 80s., 83s., 
85s.; stout sizeable, 80s., 83s., 85s.; fat stout, 80s., 82s., 84s.; good and 
seconds, 77s., 79s. Continental, Danish, No. 1 sizeable, 76s., 78s., 82s.; 
No. 2 sizeable, 76s., 78s., 82s.; No. 3 sizeable, 75s., 77s., 81 s. ; No. 1 sixes, 
75s., 77s., 81 s. ; No. 2 sixes, 75s., 77s., 81 s. ; No. 1 stout, 76s., 78s., 81 s.; 
No. 2 stout, 76s., 78s., 81 s. ; good and seconds, 73s., 76s.; Swedish, No. 1, 
sizeable, 75s., 77s.; No. 2, sizeable, 72s., 76s.; No. 3, sizeable, 72s., 75s.; 
Dutch, No. 1 sizeable, 74s., 76s., 77s.; No. 2, sizeable, 73s., 75s., 76s.; 
No. 3, sizeable, 73s., 74s.; sixes, 72s., 74s., 75s.; heavy, 72s., 74s.; good, 
70s., 74s. — with a slow trade prices have been reduced. Canadian, No. 1 
(50-62 lb.), 80s., 81 s. ; No. 2 (50-62 lb.), 78s., 80s. ; No. 3 (50-62 lb.), 78s.; 
heavy weights, 76s., 78s. — in small supply. American, Cumberland cut, 67s., 
73s.; bellies, box, 70s., 72s., up to 78s. 

Butter. — French, fresh rolls, 10s. 6d., us., 12s., 13s.; extra mild, 
106s., nos. ; finest, 102s., 104s.; Paris, 102s., 112s.; good to fine, 96s., 
98s.; inferior, 90s., 94s. — steady. Danish, finest, 120s., 122s. — steady. 
Russian and Siberian, finest, 96s., 98s., 100s. ; good to fine, 92s., 94s.; 
inferior, 88s., 90s. — fair demand for finest, other descriptions slow. Dutch, 
creamery, 102s., 108s. ; rolls, 12s. 6d., 12s. 9c!., 13s. Irish, creamery, 106s., 
1 08s., up to uos. ; unsalted, 108s., nos. ; factory, 90s., 96s., 100s. — slow. 
Australian, Victorian, finest, 104s., 106s. ; unsalted, 104s., 106s., 108s. ; 
good to fine, 100s., 102s.; unsalted, 100s., 102s. New South Wales, finest, 
102s., 104s., 106s. ; unsalted, 104s., 106s. ; good to fine, 96s., 100s. ; un- 
salted, 98s., 102s. Queensland, finest, 102s., 104s.; unsalted, 102s., 104s., 
1 06 s. ; good to fine, 96 s., 100 s. ; unsalted, 96 s., 98 s. — little doing. 

Hams. — Irish, Northern, 8-1 2's, 112s., 114s.; I2-i6's, 112s.; heavy, 
nos. ; Southern, 8-12's, 124s.; 12-16's, 124s. — steady enquiry. York and 
Cumberland, 8-12's, 126s., 130s.; 12-16's, 120s., 128s.; 16-20's, 116s., 
128s.; 20's and over, 11 6s., 128s. — scarce. Canadian, long cut (green), 
8-12's, 93s., 95s.; 12-16's, 92s., 95s.; heavy, 88s., 95s. — scarce. Ameri- 
can, long cut (green), 8-12's, 83s., 86s., 92s.; 12-16's, 79s., 82s., 84s.; 
heavy, 77s., 80s., 83s.; short cut (green), 8-12's, 80s., 84s.; 12-16's, 78s., 
81 s. ; heavy, 78s. — poor demand. Picnics, 5-6's, 53s., 53s. 6d. ; 6-8's, 
52s., 53s.; heavy, 53s. — slow. 

Lard. — Irish, — Bladders, 61 s., 68s., 71s.; do., seconds, ^y s., 66s. ; kegs, 
61 s. — f.o.b., quiet. American, — Pails, 56s. 9d., 57s.; boxes, 28 1b., 56s., 
56s. 3d.; boxes, 56 lb., 55 s. 6d., 55 s. 9d. ; half barrels, 55 s. 3d., 55 s. 6d. ; 
tierces, 55s., 55s. 3d. — a little more doing at the reduction. Danish, — 
Bladders, 61 s., 63 s. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 873 

Most of these prices are the prices from an agent to a whole- 
saler. The retailers have to pay higher prices than these. 

This exchange also has an arbitration board which has pre- 
vented thousands of pounds being squandered in lawsuits. This 
board, like the committee on quotations, is composed of members 
of the exchange chosen in rotation. When a dispute arises the 
secretary appoints three men of the board who are likely to 
know most about the case, to arbitrate between the disputants. 
Although a great deal of responsibility is put on the secretary, 
the system seems to have worked admirably. 

Let us now trace a shipment of butter from Denmark to 
the London consumer through the maximum number of steps. 
The butter is sold by the creamery to the Tooley Street house 
or agent in London. As we have seen, this agent deals only 
with wholesalers and is a true middleman. His working ex- 
penses are very light, as he seldom handles the produce himself 
but stores it at the wharf at which it is landed until it is deliv- 
ered to the buyer. The agent sells the butter at the produce 
exchange to the wholesaler. The agent's expenses are generally 
as follows: freight from the Danish creamery 2s. 6d. a cask 
(112 lb.), storage (if the agent has no warehouse of his own) 
6 d. to is. a cask, cartage 3 d. a cask or less. 

The wholesaler who buys the butter has more expenses than 
the agent. He does the carting and storing himself, and often 
splits a cask or two if the grocer is a small one. The whole- 
saler sells at an advance of 3 s. 5 d. to 5 s. per cask. 

As we have said before, some of these wholesalers import 
some of their butter themselves. There is one firm (named 
Lovell and Christmas) that imports all of its butter and sells 
to other wholesalers as well as to retailers. This firm has an 
establishment in Copenhagen which buys the Danish butter. 
When selling to the grocer Lovell and Christmas often sell 
in large quantities and store the butter at iod. a month per 
cask. The grocers can call for it as they need it. 

The retail prices on Danish butter are generally fairly well 
fixed. Nearly all of the London grocers that handled it charged 
1 s. 4d. a pound (32 cents). If they sell 1 12 pounds for this price 



874 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

they get about 149s. They generally pay about 125s. a cask, 
leaving them a margin of 24 s. The grocer's profits are kept fairly 
low because of the competition with the Maypole Dairy Company, 
which sells the same butter at is. 2d. a pound (28 cents). 

The third method of sending butter from the Danish cream- 
eries to England, namely, by selling to the Danish Cooperative 
Selling Society, was very little used in sending butter to London. 
We could obtain no definite information as to the working of 
this society. 

PEACHES IN LYONS, FRANCE 
By Grafton L. Wilson 

Lyons was, at one time, a very important market for peaches 
grown in the surrounding country and also for fruit sent from 
further south and from Spain. The city is, however, no longer 
the important center that it was ten or twelve years ago. The 
main cause for the decline of Lyons as an outlet for native fruit 
is the growing tendency for the buyers to go to the growing 
districts and buy from the farmers. Up to ten years ago the 
railroads made special rates to Lyons from Spain and the South 
so that it was the center for all fruit coming into the region, but 
these rates are now extended to all the cities of that part of the 
country and fruit is shipped directly. Large quantities of fruit 
are still handled at Lyons, however, and the market in this city 
affords a very good opportunity to observe both the sale of native 
fruit for shipment to Paris, Germany, and other points, and the 
sale of imported fruit for local consumption. 

Peaches which are not grown in the immediate vicinity of 
Lyons are handled by commission agents. The expenses of 
selling are as follows : 

Commission, usually 6 per cent 

Rent of containers 0.15 francs 

Unloading per package . 0.10 francs 

Handling per package 0.20 francs 

Cartage per 100 kilos . . . . •. . . 0.75 francs 
Freight per ton from the peach-growing re- 
gions of the south of France .... 30-40 francs 
Return of empties o. 10 francs 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 875 

The total expense per 100 kilos is about 15 francs from 
Chateaurenard, which is an important peach market in the South, 
including freight and the other expenses of shipment and selling. 
The cartage which is charged to the sender at .75 francs per 100 
kilos costs the commission agent .40 francs, thereby netting him 
a profit of .35 francs per 100 kilos. Selling is done for growers 
and for middlemen, or shippers, as they are called, who buy in 
the producing regions and pack the fruit for shipment. The pro- 
portion of professional shippers has decreased very greatly in the 
last fifteen years, as the growers are, in increasing numbers, 
adopting the practice of shipping their own fruit. This is a 
cause of inconvenience to the agents handling the fruit sent by 
the growers, as it is, as a rule, more poorly packed than that 
formerly sent by professional shippers. Also there is no stand- 
ard of packing among the growers, and the resulting irregularity 
greatly increases the difficulties of wholesale selling by the agents. 
The commission agents have combined into a society through 
the activity of which they have forced the railroads to return 
empties within eight days. Eight years ago, this society decided 
to levy a tax of 10 centimes on the jobbers for each basket 
bought. The jobbers then combined and set up a cooperative 
commission house of their own which has proved to be a 
strong competitor for the other establishments doing a com- 
mission business. 

The class of men buying most largely from the commission 
firms is the jobbers. These dealers resell to groceries, hotels, 
restaurants, and others who buy in large quantities. Many of 
them also do a retail trade in the open-air market which is held 
every morning until 9.30 a.m. along the river bank. Here they 
may rent places for 15 centimes a square meter. During the 
local peach season these men also buy from the growers to resell 
as above. In August, 191 3, the commission agents had practically 
no peaches to sell, and what few they did have sold at about 180 
francs the 100 kilos. The result was that the jobbers were buying 
native fruit from the growers, although, due to the bad crops, there 
was very little on the market at a time which would ordinarily be 
the height of the season for peaches of Lyons and vicinity. 



876 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

There are three methods of retailing peaches at Lyons : the 
fruit shops and groceries, the stalls in the covered fruit, vegetable, 
and meat market, and the stalls at the general, open-air market 
above mentioned. There was very little, if any, variation in the 
prices for these different methods, except in the large grocery 
stores and fruit shops in fashionable quarters where prices were 
somewhat higher. The highest price found was 3.50 francs the 
kilo for very high-grade fruit which was wholesaling at 200 to 250 
francs the 100 kilos. The peaches of good quality which would 
bring about 200 francs the 100 kilos at wholesale were sold 
at retail for 2.70, 2.80, or 3.00 francs the kilo. A very com- 
mon price was 2.50 francs the kilo for a grade of fruit which 
sold at wholesale for 180 to 200 francs the 100 kilos. Some 
poorer peaches were priced at retail at 1.40 and 1.80 francs 
the kilo. As will be seen from the above figures, the differ- 
ence between wholesale and retail prices ranged from 50 cen- 
times to 1 franc per kilo, and in the case of the best fruit 
probably even more. These prices cannot, however, be taken 
as any indication of the usual condition at Lyons, as 19 13 was 
an exceedingly poor year for peaches in all of the growing 
sections which supply the city. 

Lyons is the market for a large section of fruit-growing 
country, and there are numerous shippers doing business to 
Paris and Northern France, Germany, and Switzerland. At 
three o'clock every morning during the season the growers begin 
to come into the city. They bring their peaches in their own 
donkey carts, usually roughly sorted and loose in large, shallow 
baskets. A tax of 15 centimes per square meter is charged for 
places on the market. 

The men who buy on this market are of two general classes, 
namely, the above-mentioned jobbers, who purchase for local con- 
sumption, and the shippers. It was formerly the custom for these 
shippers to send their fruit to be sold by commission agents on 
the markets of Paris and other cities. Of recent years this 
method has been fast losing ground, and at the present time 
comparatively few peaches are shipped in this way. Most of the 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 877 

shippers now have regular clients from whom they receive orders 
for definite amounts of fruit. The shipper then procures the 
required fruit from the growers, if possible, otherwise from the 
commission agents or jobbers ; grades and packs the fruit and 
ships to his client, who pays the freight. Men doing business in 
this way are, of course, enabled to pay much higher prices than 
the shippers who buy to send to Paris on commission, as they 
already have their orders and can fill them at any price which 
would not seem unreasonable to their clients. The average profit 
of the shippers thus filling orders was about 10 per cent as nearly 
as could be determined. For the finest selected peaches sent to 
the fashionable hotels at Vichy, Aix-les-Bains, etc., the profit 
was much higher than this. 

The prices received by the growers in 191 3 were exceptionally 
high. During one day only did the price fall as low as 75 francs 
the 100 kilos, and the following day it immediately jumped to 
110 to 120 francs the 100 kilos. Prices continued to rise until at 
the time of observation they ranged from 165 to 200 francs. The 
latter price is the highest ever paid by shippers or jobbers except 
under very exceptional circumstances. The cost of harvesting 
peaches was very difficult to determine, as the growers are all 
small landholders doing most of the work themselves with the 
help of their families. Six francs the 100 kilos would seem, how- 
ever, to be the average cost, but this estimate would be increased 
if hired labor were used. This would include sorting by the 
grower himself, which is, as a rule, only rather roughly done. 
The wages of a hired picker are usually 3 francs a day. 

Cold storage of peaches has very little effect on the market 
of Lyons, as the capacity of the plant is not great, and up to the 
present time it has not proved successful. In 191 3, however, 
one of the large shippers stored a considerable quantity of 
peaches, apparently with great success. During the short period 
of low prices he had bought very good fruit at 80 francs the 
100 kilos. It was very carefully graded and packed for refrigera- 
tion, and the shipper hoped to get 300 francs the 100 kilos at the 
end of eight or ten days. The fruit was kept at 2\° centigrade 



878 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and seemed to be in perfect condition. The charge for cold 
storage was 15- francs per month for 100 kilos. 

There is another system of shipping fruit which, though 
unlawful, is still practiced. Men go to the sections where the 
peach season is at its height, buy in fairly large quantities, and 
ship to Paris or some other center where the local peach season 
is just beginning. They send the fruit in their own names and 
travel at the same time to the destination of the fruit. Here 
this buyer sells on the market which is supposed to be strictly 
limited to growers selling their own locally grown fruit, his only 
expense besides his own car fare being the small tax which he 
must pay for a place on the growers' market. This is, of course, 
an unfair form of competition, both for the growers near Paris 
or other centers and for the dealers handling fruit from the large 
producing sections through regular channels. 

At Millery, a small town near Lyons, about one hundred 
farmers have formed a society which is one of the very few 
which have made a success of the cooperative shipment of 
peaches and other fruit. It has now been running five years 
and has proved to be a great help to the farmers, who were 
formerly at the mercy of a few shippers who combined to pay 
very low prices. Up to 191 2 no entrance fee was charged, but 
in that year new members were taxed five centimes per tree, 
and in 191 3 the tax was raised to 10 centimes per tree. The 
method of doing business is very simple, as it depends almost 
entirely on the president, who has active charge of all the affairs 
of the society. The farmers bring in the peaches to the office of 
the society, where they are sorted into four grades and packed by 
experts. The president then sells the fruit according to his own 
judgment. From the price received for each 100 kilos the presi- 
dent gets 5.50 francs from which he must pay all the expenses 
of selling except the cost of the materials of packing. These 
expenses include the wages of the packers (30 centimes an hour) 
and the cost of cartage to the railroad (which is 30 centimes the 
100 kilos). If the price received by the grower is as much or 
more than 50 francs the 100 kilos, the president is entitled to a 
commission of 2 per cent in addition to the 5.50 francs before 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 879 

mentioned. The freight to Paris is 11.35 francs the 100 kilos 
(113.30 the ton) and the total cost for selling fruit in Paris on 
commission is about 30 francs the 100 kilos. 

The containers most commonly used are crates holding two 
layers of average peaches or three layers of small fruit. They 
hold about 10 kilos of peaches with about 36 in each layer. For 
fine fruit similar crates are used which are shallower, and the 
peaches are packed in one layer only. Both styles of crate cost 
roughly a franc apiece and this price is required as a deposit 
from all the buyers. These are the property of the commission 
agents, and a rent of 1 5 centimes is charged to senders for their 
use. There are several methods of packing in these crates. For 
poorer fruit excelsior alone is usually used. The better grade 
peaches are often separated from each other by strips of paper. 
The selected peaches, especially when placed in cold storage, 
are each carefully wrapped in specially prepared, sulphurized 
paper and packed in cotton. High-grade fruit to be sold in 
Vichy and other nearby watering places is packed in large open 
wicker baskets holding about 17 kilos and costing 3 francs. These 
are lined with paper and excelsior, and the four layers of fruit 
are separated by paper and excelsior. The packers, who are all 
women, get from 35 to 50 centimes an hour. Small cardboard 
boxes are also used, holding 12 or 16 peaches, each packed in 
cotton in a separate compartment. Due to the presence of a 
cardboard-manufacturing business dependent on the silk industry 
of Lyons, these boxes and packing cost only 25 centimes apiece. 
They are packed in large crates for shipment. Open wooden 
baskets- costing 50 centimes and holding about 5 kilos are also 
somewhat used. 

The freight from Lyons to Paris is 11 1.25 francs per ton for 
shipments of over 50 kilos and 2.25 per package of 10 kilos. 
In Paris large quantities of peaches are sold in the central 
market. A charge of 3 francs a day is made for the use of the 
stalls. The very high-grade fruit is usually sold at auction, but 
the greater part of the peaches are sold privately. There are also 
numerous commission firms with selling rooms near the market. 
The expenses of selling at Paris are as follows : 



880 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Commission 8 per cent 

Cartage per ton 5.00 francs 

Unloading from train per package less than 20 kilos . 0.05 francs 

Unloading from train per package less than 50 kilos . 0.10 francs 

Unloading from train per package over 50 kilos . . 0.20 francs 

Rent of container when the property of Paris dealer . 0.10 francs 

Duty for foreign fruit for 5 kilos 0.50 francs 

Peaches from Lyons were selling at wholesale on the central 
market for 200 to 220 francs the 100 kilos ; and in the rooms of 
the commission dealers prices ranged from 1 80 to 300 francs. The 
de luxe peaches sold at about 17 francs for two dozen. 

Fairly good peaches were priced at retail at 2.00, 2.20, and 
2.40 francs the kilo. Many were also sold at 2.60 and 2.80 
francs the kilo, the latter being the grade sold by the growers at 
Lyons for 170 or 180 francs the 100 kilos. In the larger, more 
fashionable stores, peaches were not sold by weight, but were 
packed in cotton in small baskets or boxes and were sold by the 
piece or sometimes by the box. The prices, when sold in this 
way, ranged from 50 centimes to 3 francs each. The selected 
fruit sold by the Lyons shippers for 250 to 300 francs the 100 
kilos was largely sold in this way. 

In Dijon peaches are sold in large quantities for local con- 
sumption in the covered market. As a rule both a wholesale and 
retail business is done by the same merchant. An average stall 
costs 2 francs a day regularly, the price being raised to 7 francs 
on the market days, which are held twice a week. The commis- 
sion varies from 5 per cent to 10 per cent according to the crop. 
In the summer of 191 3 the usual charge was 8 per cent. The 
dealers who sell in their own rooms charge the same commis- 
sion. The cartage costs 25 centimes the 100 kilos. The prices 
for fairly good fruit were 150 and 200 francs the 100 kilos. In 
the market, good peaches retailed at 1 .60 to 2 francs the kilo and 
in shops from 1.80 to 2.80 francs the kilo. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 88 1 

GAGES FROM AGEN 
By Grafton L. Wilson 

A market is held for gages early every morning at Agen and 
in some of the other towns of the department of Lot-et- Garonne 
during the height of the season. The fruit is brought by the 
growers in small donkey carts and is usually packed loosely in 
large shallow baskets. A placement tax of .10 francs is charged 
per basket for selling on the market. The shippers buy directly 
from the growers, and their employees take the fruit to their 
warehouses, which are close to the market place. The prices in 
July, 191 3, ranged from 20 to 30 francs for 50 kilos, which is the 
unit used for fruit in this section. These shippers send repre- 
sentatives to the markets in the towns of Lot-et-Garonne and 
adjoining departments. 

For the English trade, which is largely supplied by this section, 
baskets of wicker called half -sieves are used. They hold ioi to 
11 kilos of gages and cost 1.25 francs apiece. As a rule, these 
containers, which are used seven or eight times, are the property 
of the London wholesalers who charge 10 or 20 centimes rent. 
Another style of half-sieve, costing 40 francs the hundred, is of 
woven light wood and makes one trip only. The cost of pack- 
ing, exclusive of the price of the container, is 40 centimes per 
half-sieve, which includes the straw, string, and labor. For the 
French trade, gages are shipped in wicker baskets holding 
25 kilos and costing 3 francs. These are used only during the 
height of the season when prices are low. At the beginning 
and end of the season, when gages are to be had only in small 
quantities and at high prices, they are shipped in small, covered 
baskets of wicker which hold 6 kilos and cost 90 centimes. 

Most of the gages go to London via Boulogne-sur-Mer. For 
shipment, several of the Agen shippers combine and send 1 to 3 
carloads at a time, -as the freight is thereby reduced. Special ven- 
tilated cars are used, and the freight is 108 francs the ton for a 
shipment of over 5000 kilos, and 1 17 francs the ton for shipments 
under that amount. Five layers of* sieves are placed one upon 
the other in the cars and air is allowed to circulate freely above 



DELIVERED 


AT STATION 


3 kilos . . 


. 60 centimes 


5 kilos . . 


. 80 centimes 


I o kilos . 


1.25 francs 



882 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

them, the upper portion of the sides of the cars being open. The 
fruit is forwarded at Boulogne, by agents who charge 5 centimes 
per sieve for their services. The entire shipment takes a little 
less than three days. The freight from Boulogne to London is 
50 s. the ton. Some of the harder fruit is shipped by boat via 
Bordeaux, but by far the greater part is sent via Boulogne. 

The freight from Agen to Paris is no francs the ton. A con- 
siderable business is also done in shipping by parcel post, for 
which the prices are as follows : 

DELIVERED AT DOMICILE 

3 kilos . . . . 85 centimes 
5 kilos . . . . 1.05 francs 
10 kilos .... 1.50 francs 

The London wholesalers sell French gages on a commission 
of 5 per cent with an additional charge of 2d.-3d. per half-sieve 
for cartage handling, and market toll. The wholesale price in 
191 3 was exceptionally high, varying from 8 s. to 12 s. a half -sieve. 

French gages brought from 6d. to iod. per pound (usually 8d.) 
at retail in London in bulk. The better-grade fruit was often re- 
packed in small boxes with cotton and sold at 2 s. per box and up. 

In the middle of August, 191 3, gages were sold at wholesale 
in Lyons, at the very high price of 80 and 90 francs the 100 kilos, 
for average fruit. They were retailing at 1.20 and 1.40 francs 
the kilo. 

The freight for gages to Manchester from the French growing 
sections is 2 s. or 2 s. 6d. the half-sieve. In 19 13 the few gages 
that were put on the market brought from 8 to 10 s. at wholesale. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 883 

STAPLE VEGETABLES IN LONDON 
By Emmett K. Carver 

The methods of selling vegetables in London are practically 
the same as in Manchester, except that nearly all the produce 
is sold directly from the wholesaler to the greengrocer without 
the intervention of the huckster. Instead of having one large 
market, however, London has several smaller ones. The Covent 
Garden, Borough, and Spitalfields markets are the chief vegetable 
markets. 

The Covent Garden market is situated in the center of London 
within a few minutes walk of Charing Cross. It, together with 
much of the surrounding land, is the property of the Duke of 
Bedford, to whom all rents, tolls, etc., go. Most of the flowers 
for London go through this market, and a great many vegetables 
from Belgium and Holland, as well as from the surrounding 
country, are sold here. There is also a large auctioneering hall 
where foreign fruits, onions, etc., are sold. 

The Borough Market belongs to the borough of Southwark. 
It is situated in one of the poorer sections of the city, at the south- 
ern end of London Bridge. Although a few flowers are sold here, 
the chief commodity is vegetables, some of which are sold by com- 
missioners, buyers, etc., and some by truck farmers who cart their 
produce in themselves. 

The Spitalfields Market is situated near the banking section 
and not far from a poor residential district. It is about the same 
as the Borough Market although a little larger. The Stratford 
Market is a rather unimportant market just outside of London. 

A rather interesting experiment is being tried at the Covent 
Garden Market. The Agricultural Organization Society has 
formed a cooperative society for selling farm produce. The society 
has a shop just on the border of the market, and it does business 
in just the same way that other dealers do. It is only moderately 
successful at present. It trades in almost exactly the same way 
as the other merchants, and so has just as many expenses. What 
would be profits to the private trader are eaten up by the salaries 
of the managers. The directors feel that if the members were 



884 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

compelled to sell through the society, thus insuring it a regular 
supply of all products, its success would be certain. The follow- 
ing is a leaflet issued by the society. 

EAST ANGLIAN FARMERS LTD. 

Cooperative Salesmen 

Manager — Mr. H. Barker. 

Regd. Office — 141, Fenchurch Street, London, E. C. 

Depots — Covent Garden & Stratford Markets, London. Established 1897. 

Bankers — Barclay & Co., Lombard Street. 

This cooperative society of fruit and vegetable growers, market gardeners, 
farmers, and smallholders, consists of about 76 members and 15 affiliated societies, 
and since its formation has disposed of produce to the value of over ,£160,000. 

It is managed by a representative committee elected by the members, who 
have complete control over the whole of the operations of the society. 

Being registered as a cooperative society, the dividend payable on share 
capital is limited by statute to 5%. 

The shares are 5 s. each fully paid up and each member is required to hold 
at least 4 shares. There is no liability attached to the shares. 

No member is allowed to hold more than ^200 worth of shares in the 
society, and it is therefore impossible for it to be controlled in the interest of 
any individual. 

The society as well as selling the produce of its own members acts as gen- 
eral salesman for outside growers, but any sender can become a member of the 
society automatically under its rules ; for each ^50 worth of produce consigned 
to the society for sale, the consignor is entitled to one share. 

After paying a dividend of 5% on its share capital the society has distrib- 
uted to its members the following bonuses on the sales value of their produce : 

i9°7 • 2% 

1908 i\% 

i9°9 • • 3% 

1910 1% 

19 11 • 2 i% 

The books of the society are open to the inspection of the members at the 
different depots during ordinary business hours and members can examine the 
details of the sales of their own produce, and of that of other members, and 
can themselves be present on the stands if they wish it when their produce is 
being sold. 

The books of the society are audited by a firm of chartered accountants, 
and a balance sheet is issued annually to the members showing in detail the 
complete operations of the society. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 885 

The necessity for cooperation in agriculture and market gardening in order 
to secure the best results to producer and the most favourable conditions for 
the consumer are becoming more and more evident, and the committee ask all 
farmers and fruit-growers to increasingly support this society, which is practi- 
cally the only organisation at present available for the disposal of produce on 
a cooperative basis in the London markets. 

To better understand the selling methods we will trace potatoes, 
a typical vegetable, from the consumer back to the producer. 

Most of the potatoes sold in London are sold through small 
greengrocers who deal only in fruit and vegetables. Their meth- 
ods of selling are practically the same as those of Manchester. 
Retail prices vary considerably from time to time, but naturally 
are not so sensitive as wholesale prices. The price varies from 
5 pounds for 46.. (if cents per pound) to 4 pounds for 2d. 
(1 cent per pound). Very good quality King Edwards could be 
had for 4 pounds for 3d. (il cents per pound) during the latter 
part of August, 191 3. Nearly all of the retailers bought directly 
from the wholesalers in the markets at prices ranging from 90s. 
a ton (.965 cents per pound) to 60s. a ton (.643 cents per pound). 
Specific cases were noted where potatoes bought at 80s. a ton or 
4s. a hundredweight sold at 4 pounds for 3d. or 7s. a hundred- 
weight (112 pounds). Thus the grocer made 3 s. a hundredweight. 
Another case was noted where potatoes bought at 70s. a ton (or 
3s. 6d. a hundredweight) sold for 4 pounds for 2d. or 4s. 8d. 
a hundredweight. The profit in this case is, of course, is. 2d. 
(or 28 cents) a hundredweight. The grocer's profit varies con- 
siderably. Very often his hundredweight sack of potatoes will not 
weigh 1 1 2 pounds, for the potatoes are bought at wholesale by 
measure instead of by weight. Some grocers do not weigh out 
their potatoes accurately and so lose by overweight. This over- 
weight is harder to avoid with large potatoes than with small ones. 

With the dealers in general vegetables, potatoes are sold in the 
same way as other vegetables. But since so many more potatoes 
are sold than of any other one vegetable, some merchants sell 
nothing but potatoes. At the Kings Cross railway station there 
is a market where nothing but potatoes is sold. The ordinary 
dealer sells his stuff by standing in front of his shop and naming 



886 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

his price to any buyer who asks. If the buyer is satisfied, he buys 
and carts it away. This is a very slow way of selling, for the 
buyers often go all over the market asking prices until they know 
where they can do the best. Sometimes the merchants sell on 
commission from the farmers ; sometimes they buy their potatoes 
outright, either from the farmers or from dealers at the Kings 
Cross potato market. 

When they sell on commission they generally charge a fixed 
price for selling. For potatoes in sacks this price is 6 s. a ton 
(2240 pounds) or 6.4 cents per 100 pounds. This includes storage 
and handling in the shop, but not cartage, freight, or market tolls. 
The cartage varies from 2 s. 6d. a ton to 4 s. a ton. The larger 
merchants who have their own vans count on 2 s. 6d. a ton, but 
if the railroad company does it, it is 4 s. a ton. The railroad 
companies of England have their own drays to deliver freight 
with. Some of the dealers, especially those that specialize in 
potatoes, buy many of their potatoes in the ground and hire 
the grower or some other man to harvest them. The profits in 
this way are larger, but they varied so much that no significant 
figures could be obtained in the time available. 

The price the farmer gets for his potatoes varies considerably 
according to the distance from a market. At Biggleswade, in 
Bedfordshire, about 40 miles from London, potatoes were 15 to 
25 s. lower than the price the grocer paid at London. The cost 
of raising and harvesting a crop is the same as around Manchester. 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 887 

FOREIGN ONIONS AND FRUIT IN LONDON 
By Emmett K. Carver 

Onions from Spain and Portugal, oranges, lemons, and such 
products, are sold in London as they are in Manchester, — at 
auction. They are shipped to a broker who sells them on com- 
mission in one of the auction halls. There are two of these 
halls, one at Covent Garden and one in Eastcheap. 

The market at Covent Garden is a large hall with eight or ten 
rostra. A sample of each lot of produce is displayed and the 
lots are sold at auction. As all the rostra are going at once, the 
confusion is great. In the market in Eastcheap, or City Market, 
this confusion is avoided. This is an amphitheater, seating 200 
to 300 men, and having one rostrum. The hall is leased by four 
brokers, each of whom uses the rostrum for forty-five minutes at 
a time. These brokers issue catalogues each morning with a list 
of the lots they have for sale. They have a sample of each lot 
in the show rooms near the market, and the buyers inspect them 
before the selling begins, making a memorandum of the quality 
of each lot on their catalogues. A sample catalogue of the sales 
of one of the brokers is enclosed. The buyers at these sales are 
wholesalers from towns within a 100-mile radius of London as 
well as the wholesalers of London itself. The commission 
charged by the brokers varies with the broker, the customer, 
and the goods sold. For onions it was generally 2 per cent to 
5 per cent. 

The presence of a great number of buyers at this market has 
caused other dealers to come into the vicinity to sell at private 
sale. They have their show rooms near the market hall and 
frequently entice customers from the hall to their rooms. 

The wholesalers who buy at this sale sell the onions to the 
grocer just as they do potatoes. The profits and methods are 
practically the same as at Manchester. 



888 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



SPANISH ONIONS IN MANCHESTER 



By Grafton L. Wilson 



Place of production . . 
Place of consumption . 
Price received by shipper 
Price paid by consumer 
Difference between prices 
Number of steps between the pro- 
ducer and consumer . . 



Freight 

Tax for handling and canal dues 
Brokers' margins . . . . . 
Price paid by wholesaler . . 
Wholesalers' margin (average) . 
Price paid by grocer .... 
Grocers' margin is. 3d. to 3s. yd 
(average) 



Valencia 
Manchester 

3 s. 4 d. to 4 s. 3 d. per cwt. 

1 d. per pound 

4 s. 6 d. to 5 s. 5d. per cwt. 

Necessary, 3 

Usual, 3 or 4 

Possible, 5 or, in the case 
of onions sold by the 
very small grocer buy- 
ing from the huckster, 6 

yd. to 9d. per cwt. 

6|d. to yd. per cwt. 

1. 1 2d. to 3.30 d. per cwt. 

4 s. 8 d. to 5 s. 6 d. per cwt. 
8d. per cwt. 

5 s. 6d. to 7 s. per cwt. 

2 s. 1 o d. per cwt. 



The trade in Valencia onions follows similar lines to that in 
potatoes, with the addition of a step known as the commercial 
saleroom between the shipper and wholesaler. 

The retail price most generally found was 1 penny per pound 
with sometimes 2 pounds being given for i^d. For the best 
grade (No. 5) the price was in some stores 2 pounds for 2id. 
The latter price was charged in the stores of the Manchester 
Cooperative Society, but the Pendleton Society received the usual 
price of 1 d. per pound. 

The prices at wholesale in the market ranged from 5 s. 6d. to 
7 s. the hundredweight, with an average of 6 s. 

The onions come in boxes of light wood holding 1 hundred- 
weight which are divided into three compartments. The onions 
are carefully graded, and the grades are numbered 4, 5, or 6, 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 889 

according as there are 4, 5, or 6 onions in a row in each com- 
partment. This case is sold with the goods and usually goes 
into kindling wood. 

It is in the commercial saleroom that the handling of onions 
differs from that of potatoes. It is a large room with one hundred 
and sixty-eight seats, in the form of an amphitheater, with an ele- 
vator in the center and behind this a raised "rostrum." This room, 
together with three suites of offices and a grape showroom, is the 
property of the corporation of Manchester. The use of it and the 
grape showroom, with the basement and a suite of offices each, is 
rented to three brokerage firms for ^150 per year. They also 
pay 3d. per minute for the use of the rostrum to the corpora- 
tion. The rent charged is the same as that charged at the be- 
ginning of the undertaking and was put low in order to boom 
Manchester as a port. It will probably be raised in the near 
future. These brokers are associated and charter boats which 
bring produce direct from Spain to Manchester by canal from 
Liverpool. The sales take place whenever a cargo arrives, the 
time being advertised together with the amount and description 
of the produce to be sold. The selling is all by auction, and 
the buyers, of whom the number is limited, are wholesale dealers 
from all the cities and towns of the region, some coming, also, 
from the distant, larger centers. Each broker is allowed in turn 
forty minutes on the rostrum, then, if necessary, thirty minutes 
more, and after that he may have another fifteen, the other two 
having had each thirty minutes. Each makes out a list or cata- 
logue of his goods, giving the grade, trade mark of shipper and 
number of cases in a lot. A sample of each lot is brought up 
on the elevator, which is in two sections which alternate in such 
a way that there is always a sample before the buyers. The 
sample is marked with the lot number, and the whole lot is 
sold to the highest bidder. Each broker has his own employees, 
who manage his goods while he is selling, with the exception 
of the man at the elevator, who is employed by the corporation 
of Manchester. The prices ranged from 4 s. 8d. to 5 s. 6d., with 
an average of 5s. ild. or 5s. 3d. 



890 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The brokers charge a commission of 2 per cent to 5 per cent 
according to contract. The freight which is charged the shipper 
is yd. to 9d., and 6J-d. to yd. is charged to cover the handling 
and canal tolls. From Manchester it was impossible to trace 
onions farther back than the Spanish shipper. 

POTATOES IN MANCHESTER, ENGLAND 
By Grafton L. Wilson 



Near Manchester 

Manchester 

2s. 6d. to 3s. 3d. per cwt. 

2d. to 5d. per 5 pounds. 

2 s. 6d. per cwt. 



Place of production . 
Place of consumption 
Price received by producer 
Price paid by consumer . 
Difference (average) . . 
Number of steps between the pro- 
ducer and consumer .... Necessary, 2 

Usual, 2 or 3 

Possible, 5 

Price received by shipper (if any) . 60s. to 65s. per ton 

Shipper's margin 2 s. 6 d. to 3 s. per ton 

Price received by wholesaler . . 2 s. 9 d. to 5 s. per cwt. 

Wholesaler's margins . . . . 3 d. to 6 d. per cwt. 

Price received by jobber (if any) . 3 s. to 5 s. 3 d. per cwt. 

Jobber's margin 3d. per cwt. 

Grocer's margin (average) . . . 2 s. iod. per cwt. 

The retail prices for potatoes at Manchester ranged from 5 
pounds for 2d. to id. per pound, being usually 5 pounds for 
either 3d. or 3^d. The lower prices were in poorer sections 
only and were for an inferior grade of potatoes. Those at 5 
pounds for 4d., 4^-d., or 5 d. were of high quality and were 
found only in stores catering to the middle or higher classes. 
The cooperative stores of the Manchester Society were selling 
at one shilling the score, which is at the rate of 5 pounds for 
3d., and the Pendleton Society sold at is. 2d. the score or at 
the rate of 5 pounds for 3^-d. 

Rents for retail stores range from 6 s. a week (£1$ 12 s. a 
year) in the poor sections to ^1 a day for the larger establish- 
ments. The average, which would represent the bulk of the trade, 
pay ^25 to ^40 per year. A man paying £25 would pay in 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 891 

addition a tax of 8 s. on the pound, 15 s. water tax, and a house 
duty of 5 s. paid on all houses over ^20 per year in rent. The 
assessment is made lower than the actual rent paid, so that this 
man would pay about ^34 for his store. The large majority pay- 
ing ^25 per year or more do an order business and deliver, and 
often the lower-class men will have a boy to deliver in the imme- 
diate neighborhood. Wages for a boy of from sixteen to eighteen 
years are about 12s. to 16 s. per week; from eighteen to twenty 
years old, £1 per week ; and for a good man, 25 s. to 30s. per week. 

The wholesale prices were from 2 s. o,d. to 5 s. 6d. per hun- 
dredweight, differing largely for the different varieties, qualities, 
and salesmen. The quotations which are published in the news- 
papers are made up in some cases by market reporters, but more 
often on information furnished by large merchants, both wholesale 
and retail. They seem to be fairly accurate but rather unsatisf ac- 
tory, as the range given is often very large. 

As nearly as it was possible to find out, potatoes retailing at 
5 pounds for 3d. would cost 3s. 3d. to 4s. per hundredweight 
at wholesale; those selling at 5 pounds for 3^-d., about 3s. o,d. 
to 4 s. 6d. per hundredweight, etc., according to conditions, the 
higher grade potatoes bringing larger profits. It was impossible 
to get these closely, as the grocers often pay slightly different 
prices for the goods retailing at the same price, and the different 
retailers pay different prices. The wholesale prices also varied 
very much according to the dealers, and there were very large 
fluctuations due to the sudden changes of the supply when new 
districts began to send. The shortage due to shrinkage and 
slack weights varies very much, but taking it as A hundredweight 
in a ton or 2 pounds in a hundredweight, we can compare the 
wholesale and retail prices as follows : 

Buy @ 2s. 9d. per hundredweight (112 lb.) 

Sell 1 10 lb. @ 5 lb. for 2d Difference, 1 1 d. 

Buy (a 3 s. per hundredweight 

Sell no lb. @ 5 lb. for 2J d Difference, 1 s. 7 d. 

Buy @ 3 s. per hundredweight 

Sell no lb. @ 5 lb. for 3d Difference. 2 s. 6 d. 

Buy @ 3 s. 6d. per hundredweight 

Sell 1 10 lb. (a 5 lb. for 3 d Difference, 2 s. 



892 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Buy @ 3 s. 6d. per hundredweight 

Sell no lb. @ 5 lb. for 3^d Difference, 2s. 1 1 d. 

Buy @ 4 s. per hundredweight 

Sell 1 1 o lb. @ 5 lb. for 3! d Difference, 2 s. 5 d. 

Buy @ 4 s. 6d. per hundredweight 

Sell 1 10 lb. @ 5 lb. for 3^d Difference, is. 1 1 d. 

Buy @ 4 s. 6 d. per hundredweight 

Sell 1 1 o lb. @ 5 lb. for 4^ d Difference, 3 s., 9 d. 

In order to get a rough estimate of the profits of the grocers, 
6d. per hundredweight may be deducted to cover the hauling from 
the market to the retailer's store, the rents, wages, etc. The haul- 
ing is usually done by the grocers themselves, except in the case 
of the small dealer who pays the following prices for the carrying 
of his supplies to his store : for small push-cart load, by porter, 
from 3 to 5 miles, 2 s. 6d., varying up to the large loads carried 
by the " car men" for 4 s. 6d. to 5 s. per load for the same dis- 
tances. The resulting profit would seem to be, generally, about 
5 s. in the £, or 25 per cent, which was also the figure given as an 
estimate by several grocers and others connected with the trade. 

Practically all the potatoes consumed in Manchester pass 
through the Smithfield Market. There are two methods of tax- 
ing those selling on the market, (a) There is a class of men 
paying tolls. This class numbers between 300 and 400 and in- 
cludes the growers coming from a radius of 12 to 15 miles to 
sell their own produce and a part of the so-called " hucksters," 
who will be mentioned later, (b) The second class, numbering 
about 400, are regular tenants, paying an average rent of 1 s. 
per square yard. Formerly, this was the maximum rent, but 
four years ago a new scale of charges was put in force, with a 
maximum of is. 6d. per square yard and a minimum of iod. 
per square yard. The revised scale can, however, be applied only 
to those tenants holding stalls under a new or revised contract for 
a period of seven years following its institution, after which it will 
be applied to all stall holders. 

All carrying in and about the market is done by porters who 
are licensed by the Manchester corporation for 2 s. per year, and 
in addition to this, they must make a deposit of 2 s. 6d. for their 
badges which are of copper and brass on alternate years, in order 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 893 

that the authorities may enforce the renewal of the license each 
year. There are between 600 and 700 porters. The ordinary 
charge for porterage is id. per package, and the porter must 
return the container to the wholesale dealer after it has been 
emptied by the buyer. In case a porter loads the full containers 
on a grocer's cart, he is also bound to unload and return them 
when brought back empty by the grocer. 

Potatoes are sometimes sold on commission and sometimes 
bought outright by the wholesalers. The commission is generally 
3d. the hundredweight (5s. the ton), and the average profit, if 
bought outright, is from 5 s. to 10 s. per ton, the latter varying 
greatly. When sent to Manchester on commission, all the ex- 
penses connected with the sale of the potatoes are charged to the 
sender, but otherwise it is according to contract whether the whole- 
saler or sender pay the expenses. These expenses are, besides 
the commission : cartage from the station, which costs is. 8 d. 
per ton if done by the railroad and about is. 6d. if done by the 
wholesaler ; porterage 1 d. per hamper or bag ; and storage at the 
station of 3d. per ton per day after the first forty-eight hours. 
The dealers who are known to be very reliable and sell in very 
large quantities carry on a large trade in produce sold directly 
from the station (ex the station), thereby saving cartage and 
handling in the market. The buyers, as a rule, however, like to 
see their goods before purchasing, especially as there is no stand- 
ard and the buying is done, to a great extent, on the personal 
judgment of the buyer as to the actual weight, and on his knowl- 
edge of the wholesale dealer from whom he gets his goods. This 
lack of a standard is strongly contended against by the retail 
grocers, who are often caused very appreciable losses. They wish 
to have the net weight marked on all containers, but nothing has 
yet been accomplished in this line. 

The market .contains dealers who might be classed as follows : 
The man with large capital, having representatives abroad and 
possibly his own cars or boats, who does a very large, strictly 
wholesale business. In some cases these men are also growers. 
Second would be placed the man who has built up a large busi- 
ness without much capital. There are about 100 men or firms 



894 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

who would come under one of these heads and might be termed 
strictly wholesalers. From these may be graded 250 merchants 
who, to a certain extent, buy merely to sell again on the same 
market. There are some wholesalers who also buy on the mar- 
ket whenever there seems to be a profitable occasion or when it 
is necessary in order to fill out their lines. There are others buy- 
ing only on the market, having perhaps one or two small growers 
who send produce from time to time. At the end of the list 
would come the so-called hucksters, who buy odd lots of poor 
goods and sell to the street hawkers and smallest grocers. There 
are about 150 of these hucksters, of whom only 50 are stall 
holders, the rest paying toll and selling in the streets or squares 
close to the market. In addition to these dealers, there are 200 
to 250 growers who bring in their own produce and pay the 
above-mentioned tolls for the right to sell in the streets and 
squares near the Smithfield Market. As regards the profits of 
these various dealers, it is very hard to say exactly ; but for all 
produce the average wholesaler's commission is about 5 per cent, 
which is often raised to 71 per cent for English goods when 
empties are supplied. The profit of the men buying to resell on 
the market was estimated at about 3d. per package. 

The Manchester market is noticeable for the specialization 
among those doing a wholesale business. Thus, there are two 
dealers handling almost entirely finest and out-of-season fruits 
for the highest-class trade, while there are others handling only 
local vegetables, and so on. This may be one reason for the 
large number of men who buy on the market to resell at whole- 
sale on the same market, as they assemble in their stalls all lines 
of goods and can afford to sell small quantities where the strictly 
wholesale dealer with his specialized trade might not wish to sell 
the small amounts required by the very small grocer. Another 
reason for the amount of trade done by these intermediate dealers 
on the market is that the retail grocer wishes to see his goods 
before buying and so does not like to order from the wholesaler 
the day before. The intermediate men do this and are also on 
hand to buy very early in the morning, with the result that, when 
the retail grocer comes to get his supplies, he must take from 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 895 

the intermediate men, as there is none of certain lines left in the 
hands of the real wholesalers. 

Some of the largest retailers are also wholesalers in a sense, 
as they supply other small retailers in their neighborhood, making 
about 3d. per package on the transaction. The grocers are fight- 
ing hard to have the market made up of wholesalers only, but so 
far nothing has been done. It would seem to be very difficult 
to define a true wholesaler and regulate the selling accordingly. 
The grocers are also fighting against two forms of competition 
which they consider unfair : (a) the hawkers who have push-carts 
and sell vegetables in the poor sections or have more fixed stands 
and sell fruit on the business streets, and {b) the custom of some 
of the wholesalers on the market of fixing up their stalls a little 
on Saturday afternoon and evening after the business is over, 
for retailing fruit. At this time there are large crowds who come 
for the general market in the surrounding district and, in stroll- 
ing through the market, spend a few pennies on fruit. This does 
not seem to be a competition against the average grocer, however, 
as the fruit would probably not have been bought at all, if it were 
not for the general market. As has been mentioned before, the 
slack weights are a point of contention for the grocers who are 
working for the compulsory marking of net weights. Another 
point which they are working to obtain is the abolishing of the 
system of returnable empties. They claim that it is an unneces- 
sary bother and expense to return empties and that there is a 
large chance for fraud by the porters who have in charge the 
returning of the empties and at the same time handle the 
money which the grocers have previously paid as a deposit to 
the wholesalers. 

With unreturnable empties, the leakage caused by the loss of 
empties or the failure to return them would be abolished. This 
leakage is, of course, at the expense of the grocer, who has paid 
a deposit on them, and in some cases might amount to quite a 
large sum. They claim that the unreturnable empty would benefit 
the wholesaler and shipper or grocer as well, as there would be 
no up-keep or storage and a much smaller cost. This is especially 
the case for the Jersey potatoes which come in the grape barrels, 



896 . READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

which are often not of uniform size, are very wasteful of space 
in boats and carts, and, as the season lasts only about six weeks, 
are very expensive to store. 

The containers for potatoes during the summer months are 
of two kinds : (a) Hampers of wickerwork, holding a hundred- 
weight. They cost about is. 8d. and is. 6d. or 2s. Deposit is 
made for them by the grocer buying from the wholesalers, (b) Also 
small barrels holding 80 pounds, which are used largely from the 
Lancashire districts and from Jersey. These are old grape barrels 
and cost with re-coopering and stringing is. 6d. apiece. The 
former are the property of the Manchester wholesalers, and the 
latter of the shippers or middlemen of the sections and are re- 
turned at the expense of the wholesaler. Some of these middle- 
men buy barrels at 2ld. or 3d. apiece and 8d. for a better grade 
and have a man to re-cooper and string them. Later, when the 
potatoes are harder, bags are used, holding 1 hundredweight and 
costing yd. These make, as a rule, several trips and are usually 
the property of the wholesaler. In the summer the potatoes are 
dug right into hampers or barrels, as the case may be. 

In Lancashire to a large extent and also in other sections about 
Manchester, there is one man between the grower and the whole- 
saler who is called a middleman. He buys outright from farmers 
and then either sells or sends the goods on commission to the 
wholesaler. In Ormskirk, about 40 miles from Manchester, these 
middlemen supply to the farmers the above-mentioned barrels, 
charging a deposit of is. The farmer must cart to the station 
and load on the cars, the only function of the middleman being 
to find a market, supply empties, and occupy himself with the 
details of selling, shipment, etc. For these services his profit is 
about 2 s. 6d. per ton on an average, and when he supplies bags 
and men to help pack them, he makes up to 5 s. the ton. During 
the summer the profit averages above 2 s. 6d. The price of the 
middlemen to the wholesaler is 60s. to 65 s. per ton. The freight 
to Manchester is 7s. 3d. per ton if 2 tons are sent, 6s. 8 d. if 
4 tons are sent. 

The farmers near Ormskirk were getting about 55 s. to 60s. 
per ton for their potatoes, the middlemen all paying the same 



THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 897 

price on any given date to all farmers. The farmers can, how- 
ever, get about 15 s. more by carting to Liverpool, at an expense 
of, roughly, 7 s. 6d., thus netting a profit of 7 s. 6d. more per 
ton than they can get by sending to middlemen. This is done 
as much as possible by the farmers who themselves cart and 
sell at the Liverpool market, paying a toll of 3 s. per one-horse 
load and 3 s. 6d. more per two-horse load. The farmers have 
attempted to eliminate the middleman and sell directly to or 
through the wholesalers by combining together for shipment, 
but this has never proved practical on account of jealousies and 
lack of business ability among them. 

Below is a rough estimate of the cost of growing an acre 
of potatoes : 

25 tons manure at 1 os. per ton . . . . ^12 10s. 

I2cwt. seeds at 4 s. cwt 1 

To plough twice 1 

To make rows 15 

To set seed 15 

Cover seed 7 6d. 

Care, weeding, etc. 1 

£17 17s. 6d. 

To this must be added the cost of digging, handling, cartage 
to station, storage, etc., which would bring the total cost to ^20 
or £2$. Some farmers gave a higher estimate than this, but 
it would seem to be a fair one for the section. Wages for farm 
hands are from 20s. to 25 s. a week. 

Taking the average yield as 10 to 13 tons per acre, the profit 
would average from £16 to p£i8 per acre, as nearly as can be 
reckoned under the varying conditions. 

In Cheshire the farms are often larger, and a large number of 
farms send directly to the wholesalers who supply hampers, charg- 
ing, sometimes, a rent of ^d. per hamper. The prices received by 
the farmer, which are clear except for expenses of carting to the 
station, were, when visited, 3s. 3d. to 3s. 6d. per hundredweight, 
according to distance, quality, state of market, etc. The freight 
from one of the centers to Manchester was 6 s. 6d. delivered 
in the market. 



VIII. AGRICULTURAL POLICY 

THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 
By C. F. Bastable 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XVIII, p. I, 
November, 1903) 

[Footnotes are omitted from this reprint. The reader is referred to the 
original article. — Ed.] 

THE Irish Land Act, which has been the principal work of 
the legislative session of 1903, is remarkable in several 
respects. But its chief significance lies in the fact that it defi- 
nitely binds all parties in Great Britain and Ireland to that par- 
ticular method of solving the land question often described as 
the " abolition of dual ownership." It thus marks an important 
and probably decisive stage in the tedious process of recasting 
the agrarian system of the country and removing the obstacles 
that have hampered the operation of earlier measures of reform. 
So many have been the discussions on the political and eco- 
nomic aspects of this great branch of the Irish problem that all 
persons even moderately interested in such inquiries are well 
aware of the way in which the existing land system has been 
formed. Beginning with the application of the English common 
law to Irish tenures in the opening years of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, it was further affected by the series of confiscations which 
only ceased at its end, as well as by the extensive Plantation of 
Ulster. The position in the eighteenth century was that of a 
body of landowners, many of them not residing in the country, 
and distinct both in race and religion from the actual cultivators 
who made up the great body of the people. In this way the 
"cottier" system — which Ireland may claim to have originated 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 899 

— came into being. Under it the peasant cultivator possessed of 
little capital bid directly for the privilege of occupying land. As 
a result, rents were raised to the highest point ; and, though 
they were often merely nominal, being subject to abatements in 
times of pressure, they yet represented the full surplus produce 
after the wants of the laborers under their low standard of sub- 
sistence had been supplied. The growth of population and the 
immense expansion of Great Britain due to the great series of 
inventions in the period 1 760-178 5 still further affected Irish 
agriculture. Under the cover of the corn duties (and the earlier 
bounties) tillage was considerably extended, in order to supply the 
English market. The high prices that accompanied the French 
wars worked in the same direction. This unhappy system was 
overthrown by the great famine of 1 846-1 847. But the seeds 
of decay were implanted before. The miserable condition of the 
cultivators, the defective methods of agriculture, and the heavy 
burden of indebtedness which pressed on the landowners made 
a change imperative and also certain, whenever free trade in corn 
should be adopted by Great Britain. But the need for reform in 
the conditions of tenure had been urged before the famine, in 
the form of a claim for "tenant right," which would protect the 
improvements of the farmer, and which existed by custom in the 
Ulster Plantation counties. Sharman Crawford's bill for a com- 
pensation for improvements was introduced in 1835. "If," said 
O'Connell in 1845, "they asked me what are my propositions 
for relief of the distress, I answer first tenant right. I would 
give the landlord his land, and a fair rent for it ; but I would 
give the tenant compensation for permanent improvements." 

The actual legislation was of a very different tendency. In 
1848 the Encumbered Estates Court was established; and by its 
agency the landowners most heavily in debt were weeded out, 
their place being taken by a more provident and enterprising 
class. To secure this result, the stringent rules of real property 
law were set aside, and estates were in many cases sold at very 
low prices. The " commercial principle " was still further ap- 
plied to land in i860 by Dardwell's and Deasy's acts. The whole 
system of tenancy was based on contract, not on tenure, and thus 



900 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the feudal conception was definitely removed, while the various 
provisions of the law were consolidated in a convenient form. 
During this period various compensation bills introduced by both 
Conservative and Liberal governments had failed to pass ; and 
insecurity of tenure, increased by the events of the famine and 
the action of the new proprietors, became a cause of political 
and social unrest, which culminated in the Fenian movement. This 
led directly to Gladstone's first land act (1870), the earliest defi- 
nite effort to deal with the grievances of the Irish tenant, as 
distinct from reforms calculated to raise the efficiency of agricul- 
ture. It recognized the body of usages which formed the Ulster 
custom ; it laid down broadly the principle of compensation for 
the tenants' improvements ; it introduced the new system of com- 
pensation for disturbance, intended to impose a penalty on evic- 
tions ; and, finally (by the " Bright " clauses), it sought to make 
sales by landlord to tenant easier. This well-meant attempt proved 
to be quite inadequate for the purpose, especially when a new 
period of agricultural depression, starting from the bad harvests 
of 1877 and the following years, made the payment of rent 
difficult. The fierce agitation of the Land League (1879) was 
met by the act of 188 1, which accepted the system of (1) "fixity 
of tenure" and (2) "fair rent," with the right of (3) "free 
sale" by the tenant of his interest (the three F's) and created a 
special commission with power to determine the " fair rent " of 
the usual tenant holdings. Unfortunately, this adoption of the 
policy long advocated by the popular party in Ireland came at a 
time when the value of land was falling in all western Europe, 
and the newer idea of a complete expropriation of the landlords 
had taken the place of the older plan of fixed tenures in the 
Irish programme. The operation of the act was viewed with 
suspicion by both landlords and tenants. Though its immediate 
effect was a lowering of rent by over 20 per cent, this was 
believed by the latter to be insufficient, and was treated as con- 
fiscation by the former. The purchase clauses of the act failed 
almost completely, and thus further legislative action became ex- 
pedient. But all these later measures have been passed by the 
Conservative and Unionist party. In 1885 the "Ashbourne" 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 901 

Act established a fund of 5,000,000 pounds (increased by 5,000- 
000 more in 1888) for purchase, and relieved the tenant from 
providing part of the purchase-money. In 1887 the fair-rent 
provisions of the act of 1881 were extended to the lease-holders, 
and temporary reductions of rent, based on the movement of 
prices, arranged. Mr. Arthur Balfour's measure of 1891 intro- 
duced a complicated system by which additional funds for land 
purchase were guaranteed by the several Irish counties through 
the grants given to them from the State. In 1896 the tenant's 
right to improvements (which had been impaired by a series of 
judicial decisions) was further defined and secured, while more 
lenient rules for the repayment of the purchase advances, secur- 
ing a reduction to the purchaser at intervals of ten years, en- 
couraged the transfer of land from the landlords to the tenants. 
Besides this varied legislation there were many abortive attempts — 
e.g., Mr. Morley's bill of 1895 — to deal with the many difficulties 
of the problem which each change in economic conditions brought 
into notice. Thus the special position of tenants under the Ulster 
custom ; the right of the landlord to pre-emption of a holding 
offered for sale by its occupier, and to have its true value fixed 
by the Land Commission ; the treatment of tenants who had been 
evicted, and of those who had taken their farms ; and the claim 
of the agricultural laborer to obtain a house and an allotment of 
land — all these had attracted public attention. 

Two influences were, however, of peculiar importance in has- 
tening on the act of 1903. One was the strong movement in 
favor of compulsory purchase initiated by Mr. T. W. Russell and 
supported by the Protestant and Unionist farmers of the North. 
Another was the increasing difficulty experienced in keeping up 
the agitation connected with the Irish party's policy. A general 
recognition of the loss that long-continued disturbance inflicts on 
all classes made conciliation or compromise seem desirable. To 
these must be added the disposition of English statesmen to deal 
more liberally with Ireland, in order to raise her material condition 
and thereby remove the source of political discontent. 

The views of the government were decidedly indicated in the 
Land Purchase Bill introduced in 1902. Its principal feature 



902 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

was the proposal for direct purchase of estates by the Land Com- 
mission, for which purpose additional funds were to be provided. 
An application for a readjustment of rent might be met by the 
other party applying to the commission to state the fair terms 
of sale, which, if not accepted, would prevent any alteration 
of rent. 

This last part of the bill was strongly opposed by the tenant's 
advocates as an infringement of the right secured by the act of 
1 88 1, and all parties seemed to hold that still more inducement 
to purchase should be given. The measure was accordingly with- 
drawn with a promise that an Irish land bill would be the chief 
piece in the programme for the following year. In the meantime 
active efforts were made to bring about a conference between the 
representatives of landlords and tenants, which should come to 
an agreement on the terms of settlement to be submitted to the 
government for embodiment in the new bill. Though the official 
body representing the owners (the Landowners' Convention) de- 
clined to take part in a conference, a number of landlords agreed 
to the plan ; and four representatives of this section met four 
members of Parliament who were regarded as tenants' representa- 
tives, and after discussion put forth a statement in which the 
most noteworthy points were : (i) the assertion that an occupy- 
ing proprietary in lieu of dual ownership was the only satisfac- 
tory settlement of the question ; (2) that the landlords' income 
(defined to mean rents fixed since 1896) should be secured to 
them; (3) that owners should be allowed to purchase their man- 
sion houses and demesne lands ; (4) that the expense of proving 
title and delay in payment of the purchase-money should be 
removed ; (5) that the tenants' annuities should be such as to 
give an immediate reduction, varying from 15 to 25 per cent, 
with further reductions as the process of repayment went on, 
which would involve the aid of the State. The laborers, the Con- 
gested Districts, and the evicted tenants were also recommended 
to the consideration of the government. 

Although originally hostile, the Executive Committee of the 
Landowners' Convention accepted the Conference Report as " a 
valuable addition" to "the suggestions that had been made for 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 903 

removing the difficulties of the Irish Land Question." General 
approval was also expressed by the great body of Irish farmers. 

Under these exceptionally favorable conditions, Mr. Wyndham 
brought in his revised scheme, which was set forth in a speech 
of remarkable clearness. The difficulties of the problem were 
sketched, and also the necessity of dealing with it. The extreme 
complication of tenures and the many interests requiring con- 
sideration, as well as the mass of previous legislation, formed 
the greatest puzzle. The deterioration in agriculture from the 
absence of inducements to investment on the part of either land- 
lord or tenant and the evil moral effect on the farming class 
made it essential to deal boldly with the matter, which was also 
desirable in the interest of Great Britain as a neighboring country, 
necessarily affected by Ireland's prosperity or distress. 

Before considering the details of the bill, we may notice two 
features, one of which has been removed and the other altered 
in the act finally passed. As at first planned, the annuity to 
be paid by the purchaser was to be divided into two parts, one 
(seven-eighths of the whole) redeemable by instalments running 
over sixty-eight and a half years, the other and smaller portion 
to be perpetual. The idea underlying this reservation of rent 
was to give to the State a power of control over the holders 
of land, in order to prevent subdivision and mortgaging, and 
also possibly for other objects. The Tenants' Convention held 
a few weeks after the appearance of the bill declared strongly 
against this limitation, which was surrendered in committee. 
Again, in the first schedule of the bill a graduated scale for 
the bonus to be given to selling landlords was set out, varying 
from 5 per cent on estates over ,£40,000 to 15 per cent on 
those not exceeding £5000. This schedule is absent in the 
act, where a uniform bonus of 12 per cent is laid down. But 
besides these unessential matters there was very little change. 
The general trend of opinion in Ireland was expressed by the 
votes of the Tenants' Convention just referred to, and also of 
the Landowners' Convention in favor of the measure. 

English people of all parties were ready to acquiesce in what 
seemed likely to solve the Irish Land Question. Criticism was 



904 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

restrained by the fear that in some way or other it might wreck 
the bill. The result was that the second reading passed by an 
enormous majority, and the amendments in committee were few 
and comparatively unimportant. One serious amendment pro- 
posed by the Nationalist leader — namely, (i) the adoption of the 
minimum reductions laid down in the Conference Report (25 per 
cent for first-term and 15 per cent for second-term rents) and 
(2) the removal of the maximum limits of reduction fixed in 
the bill — was negatived. The amount of advance permissible 
was increased ; but, speaking broadly, the measure passed the 
Commons unaltered. 

In the Lords its course was equally smooth. Some amend- 
ments, carried against the government by the votes of the Irish 
peers, were rejected by the Commons and not pressed by the 
Upper House. 

The keynote of this elaborate piece of legislation is to be 
found in the fact that it is essentially a land-purchase act, and 
therefore intended to set aside or rather make unnecessary the 
act of 1 88 1, which was as essentially a rent-fixing act. It is 
true that there are provisions to assist purchase in the Land Act 
of 188 1, and provisions as to the hearing of fair-rent cases in 
that of 1903 ; but in each case they are subordinate to the main 
purpose, and are hidden away, so to speak, in an obscure corner. 
This change marks the advance made in the intervening period. 
What is regarded as highly conservative in 1903 would have 
been denounced as revolutionary in 1881. 

Starting, then, with the principle of assisting the transfer of 
land to the occupier, the new act provides several ways. First, 
the previous system of individual dealings between owner and 
occupier remains open to those who desire to employ it. But 
the transaction will have to be examined, as at present, and 
the security found to be sufficient by the Land Commission. 
Further, the selling landlord will receive only the capital of 
the annuity without any bonus ; and there is no limit, either 
maximum or minimum, as to the reduction gained by the pur- 
chaser. Even in this case the advantages conferred by the act 
are considerable ; for the selling owner receives cash instead of 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 905 

land stock, and the interest on the advance is reduced to 2| per 
cent, I per cent being added for the sinking fund. On the 
whole, it is improbable that sales to individual tenants will 
continue to any considerable extent. 

The second method is that of agreement between landlord 
and tenants for the sale of a whole estate. The mode of pro- 
cedure is simply for the parties to come to terms as to the price 
to be paid to the landlord, or — the same thing under another 
form — the amount of reduction which the tenants will receive 
on their present rents. Here an important condition has been 
laid down, namely : that for rents fixed after 1 896 the reduction 
must be not less than 10 or more than 30 per cent; for those 
fixed earlier — the great number of first-term rents — the reduc- 
tion must be between 20 and 40 per cent. Though this estab- 
lishment of "zones," as they have been styled, has been much 
criticised, it possesses decided advantages. The commissioners 
must accept any agreement which satisfies the condition as to 
reduction, and the administrative and legal delays which have 
hampered land purchase in the past are to a great extent re- 
moved. Besides, the minimum limit secures the State against 
having to advance an amount exceeding the value ; and the 
maximum one protects the interests of head landlords, encum- 
brancers, and the holders of reversions from being sacrificed by 
a life owner or an encumbered one. There remains in addition 
a discretionary power on the part of the Estates Commissioners 
to sanction sales outside the limits, if adequate reason be shown. 
The probability is that most of the sales will be carried out by 
these agreements, arranged directly. 

Another form of purchase, developed from the ineffective 
provisions of the second Gladstone act, is that in which the 
owner sells to the Land Commission for resale to the tenants. 
Here the owner applies to the commission, and it after inquiry 
makes a proposal to purchase, if tenants of three-fourths of the 
holdings in number and ratable value are willing to buy at the 
estimated price. In special cases the last restriction may be 
removed, — i.e., if there is no fear of loss, — while, in the case 
of "congested estates," loss up to 10 per cent may be risked. 



906 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The commission can also arrange to buy estates ready for sale 
in the Land Judge's Court, where so many encumbered prop- 
erties have been lying for disposal since the opening of the 
agricultural depression. How far these extensive powers will 
be brought into use is somewhat doubtful. tVhen a small 
minority of the tenants on an estate decline to purchase, they 
will certainly be used, the dissenting tenants being in such cases 
made compulsory purchasers. 

Finally, the Congested Districts Board — a body established 
in 1 89 1 for the improvement of the the backward districts of 
Ireland — receives additional assistance for purchasing estates 
and redistributing the land amongst the tenants in the most 
beneficial way. 

By these several methods it is certain that there will be in the 
aggregate a very considerable transfer of land to the occupiers, 
accompanied, in the case of the poorer parts of the country, by 
a readjustment of holdings in order to bring them to a suitable 
size. But there are important sections of the farming class that 
are placed outside the effective operation of the measure. Judicial 
tenancies — i.e., tenancies on which a fair rent has been fixed, 
either by the court or by agreement — are alone directly regarded. 
But the total number of first-term rents fixed at the opening of 
1903 was 342,000 ; of these over 87,000 had obtained a second 
term. The area covered by these operations is 10,228,000 acres, 
or one-half of the whole country. The total number of holdings 
is over 490,000 and this would seem to leave a very large residue 
(150,000) placed in a less favorable position. Two considerations, 
however, somewhat reduce this formidable number. Many hold- 
ings close to towns — the so-called "town parks" — are not fit 
subjects for purchase ; and then there are over 70,000 holdings 
already purchased by their occupiers. Making due allowance for 
these classes, there will probably be about 100,000 holdings out- 
side those forming the "estates " with which the act deals. They 
must remain for the process of individual bargaining. Another 
limitation is contained in the prudent regulation that the Land 
Commission shall not have more than ;£ 5,000,000 worth of land 
in its own hands. 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 907 

Passing from the methods of purchase, we come to the special 
machinery created by the act. This is the Estates Commission, 
composed of three members, administrative, not judicial, in char- 
acter. The importance of thus bringing the commissioners under 
the control of the Executive and making their system of working 
more elastic can hardly be overestimated. The extent to which 
judicial stringency has retarded the working of the purchase 
system is difficult to realize. It may be expected that the new 
commissioners, carefully selected for their competence, will apply 
sound business methods in their department. 

The extraordinary delays in examining the titles of the proper- 
ties for sale will not be likely to recur in the future, especially 
as anyone in receipt of the rents for six years can practically be 
treated as the owner for the purpose of selling, though not en- 
titled to receive the purchase-money without the adequate proof. 

The powers of the Estates Commissioners are sufficiently ex- 
tensive to enable them to improve the property passing through 
their hands. Sporting rights, rights to minerals, etc., may become 
vested in them ; and there can be little doubt that they will use 
their powers. The real danger is rather that of a too paternal 
system being developed by the action of the various State depart- 
ments engaged in fostering the Irish peasants, with evil results 
in checking the growth of a spirit of independence and individual 
activity in economic matters. 

An elaborate system of transfer, such as that just sketched, 
needs as its basis a carefully organized financial provision ; and 
it is here that the special interest of the British tax-payer comes 
in. The course of development in this part of Irish land legisla- 
tion has been a gradual increase in the assistance given by the 
State to the process of purchase. Beginning with the advance of 
a portion of the price to aid the thrifty buyer, it has gradually 
changed into the payment of the whole purchase-money by the 
State to the seller, the tenant-buyer paying off principal and in- 
terest by instalments. The act of 1903 puts the system on a 
revised basis. The chief points in this remodelled plan are : 
(1) The payment of the price in money, the amount being deter- 
mined by the annuity which the purchaser is to pay. (2) The 



908 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

requisite funds are to be obtained by the issue of British govern- 
ment stock bearing 2| per cent interest, and not redeemable for 
thirty years. (3) The advances and the interest on the stock come 
from a special fund described as the Irish Land Purchase Fund 
(section 27), which is to be fed by the issues of stock and the 
payment of annuities. (4) By a supplementary act of 1903 an 
Irish Development Grant has been created, and it will contribute 
;£ 5 0,000 annually to the purchase fund. The Guarantee Fund 
under the act of 1891 is also a possible contributory. (5) But 
behind all these particular contrivances there is the credit of the 
British State. It is this that will enable the necessary funds to 
be raised on reasonable terms. Apart from this powerful lever 
the system would be impossible ; for the interest on a purely 
Irish loan would be such as to leave -no room for reduction of 
the tenant's annual payments, or else offer no inducement to the 
owners to sell. (6) A still greater effect is likely to follow from 
the grant of a bonus to the seller of complete estates. This gift 
is fixed for five years at 12 per cent on the purchase-money of 
each estate ; but the total amount to be so granted is limited to 
;£ 1 2,000,000, and is to be obtained by issues of the 2-| per cent 
land stock. The result will be that, when the whole bonus 
has been granted, the charge for interest and sinking will be 
,£390,000 per annum. In the earlier years of the process it will 
of course be much less, and will finally diminish as the work of 
redemption goes on. 

It is possible from the foregoing details to estimate roughly 
the burden placed on the British Exchequer. Under existing 
conditions in the money market most of the land stock will be 
at a discount, amounting at first probably to 3 or 4 per cent. It 
is also true that the successive issues will tend to lower the 
government funds, as the total may in fifteen years or less reach 
;£ 1 00,000,000 or even ^£120,000,000. Then there is the risk 
of non-payment of annuities and loss in selling portions of 
estates. When the £ 12,000,000 to be allotted as bonus is 
added, the outside limit of liability may be put at ^20,000,000; 
and this will be spread over a long period. Bearing in mind 
the history of this and other Irish questions, there does not 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 909 

appear to be any reason to regard the charge as excessive, since 
it is the price of relief from a difficult and expensive situation. 

Though the features already noticed are those of most im- 
portance, the act contains in its one hundred and three sections 
a great deal of serviceable legislation on special points. Thus 
the powers of trustees in respect to investment are enlarged, 
and the office of public trustee created. Of still wider effect is 
the provision that the owner, when selling an estate, may him- 
self repurchase his demesne or other land in his occupation in 
'the same way as an ordinary tenant. The aim of this conces- 
sion is, besides encouraging sales, to offer an inducement to 
resident landlords to remain in Ireland, and take part in the 
working of local government as well as to supply examples of 
better agricultural management. It is difficult to say how far 
this expedient will prove successful. Though all owners who can 
do so will rebuy their demesnes, it is likely that most of them 
will soon dispose of this remnant of their property, for which 
they can easily obtain a good price. 

Another troublesome question is that of the position of evicted 
tenants. This has been met by allowing any one V who within 
twenty-five years before the passing of the act was the tenant " 
to purchase a parcel of land (presumably his former holding) ; 
but in such cases the advance is limited to the amount of .£1000 
(unless the Land Commission consider that a larger amount will 
not prejudice other claimants). This section was the result of 
a compromise between the government and the Irish party, and 
was keenly debated. It leaves open the difficult question of the 
position of the new tenants who have taken evicted farms. Are 
they to be allowed to retain their holdings, or shall they receive 
compensation ? 

In accordance with the bad precedent set in so many previous 
acts, there are, as already noticed, certain sections dealing with 
the fair-rent courts and the laborers, tacked on to the main body 
of the land-purchase enactments. The subcommissions for fixing 
judicial rents will for the future consist of one legal and only 
one lay assistant commissioner. In appeals one judicial com- 
missioner, assisted by a lay assessor, will form the court. There 



910 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

may therefore be two, or probably more, Appeal Courts in 
operation, as any judge may be nominated as an additional 
commissioner. The evident object is to secure greater rapidity 
in dealing with cases, and remove the congestion in the 
Land Courts. 

The amendments to the Laborers' Acts are merely a new 
definition of an " agricultural laborer," and the recognition of 
the wishes of the applicants in the choice of sites for cottages. 
The fuller treatment of the workers' case is reserved for further 
legislation, which is promised for next year ; but this under* 
present political conditions is rather doubtful (which is to be 
regretted), as the laboring class in Ireland is the one which 
presents the chief problem for the future. Even though it has 
improved since the time when the Devon Commission reported 
that "the Irish laborer was the worst fed, worst clothed, and 
worst housed in Europe," there is much room for further ad- 
vance. The chief hope of the agricultural worker lies in the 
opening up of opportunities for the acquisition of land by the 
use of energy and thrift. 

The question of greatest interest in connection with the new 
act is, of course, How will it work for its admitted purpose, the 
transfer of Irish estates to the tenants ? So many attempts have 
been made that it seems absurd to expect that the present measure 
is to be the final one. It is almost certain that a pressing claim 
will be urged for increase of the donation of ;£ 12,000,000 pro- 
vided to " oil " the wheels of" the system ; and some concessions 
on this head may be expected, particularly if any Irish funds pr 
British grants to Ireland are available. Then there is some reason 
for thinking that the administrative working of the act will not 
be as rapid as is generally desired. Though the new commis- 
sioners will be more energetic, and the examination of titles 
much simpler, yet some inquiry will be necessary, and there will 
be delay in working out the details of transfer. If land to the 
value of ;£ 5,000,000 or .£6,000,000 per annum changes hands, 
it will be as much as can reasonably be expected. The total 
period over which the operation would extend would then run 
to twenty years. 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 911 

More serious still is the fact that a large body of occupiers 
will not be able to take full advantage of the new facilities. 
Non-judicial tenants and those with very large holdings will ask 
for some aid towards purchasing, and here the hostility of the 
Nationalist party to the holders of large pastoral farms — "cattle- 
ranches," as they are called by imitation from America — will prove 
an obstacle. The Congested Districts Board may buy in and re- 
allot such land ; but this course will not tend to the economic advan- 
tage of Ireland, where different types of farming are required, 
and where the large farmer is the pioneer of improvements. 

The greatest difficulty that the new measure will have to 
encounter is the possible disinclination of landlords to sell, ex- 
cept at prices much above those which have been established 
under the Ashbourne Act and its successors. The idea is very 
prevalent among the tenants that seventeen to eighteen years' 
purchase of the existing rents is an adequate price ; and, looking 
at the average price of purchase for all Ireland, it has a prima 
facie plausibility. But the variations from the average are very 
wide, and differ much in different counties. Thus the extreme 
differences run from 45.7 years to 6.2 years, which shows the 
extraordinary inequalities that exist. Two circumstances have to 
be taken into account, moreover, in considering the low prices 
hitherto established : (1) The insecurity of the landowners' 
position. Seventeen years' purchase meant capitalizing at almost 
6 per cent, at a time when interest was slightly over 2I per cent. 
Sales at such a sacrifice could not continue with more settled 
political conditions. (2) Moreover, the sellers under the earlier 
purchase acts either were hopelessly encumbered or were large 
proprietors, who desired to get rid of their troublesome Irish 
estates. The London companies were specially anxious to rescue 
their property, even at a loss. These two classes are now practi- 
cally exhausted, and further sales are only possible at higher 
prices. The critical matter is to determine at what point this 
new level will be placed. The probability is that at first the 
variations will be wide, running from the minimum eighteen and 
a half years (excluding . bonus) to twenty-five or twenty-six years. 
As the work of transfer goes on, the average price will tend to 



912 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

be higher, unless there is some serious depression in agriculture. 
Should stock-exchange securities not recover from their present 
relatively low price, the advantage of sale to the landlords, owing 
to the favorable opportunity for investment, will bring more sell- 
ers forward. But the main influences will be rather the general 
political condition and the desire to carry out the transformation 
in property. 

That there is a general disposition on the part of landlords to 
sell and of tenants to buy is beyond dispute, and each completed 
transaction will lead to others. The advantages to the occupier 
of a reduction in his yearly payments with the security that his 
new position gives will tell powerfully in favor of purchase. To 
the resident landlord the prospect of getting what is substantially 
a loan on easy terms, and receiving a reasonable price for his 
rights over the land held by tenants, is not unsatisfactory. The 
encumbered landlord, who gets the power of clearing off mort- 
gages and other charges, bearing a comparatively high rate of 
interest and thereby relieving himself of a heavy drain, will cer- 
tainly try to come to terms. On these grounds there is reason 
to believe that the act will have a large measure of success, 
though at times there may be some slowing down in its operations. 

It is, however, when a great number of estates have been sold 
and when, as is possible, the remaining landlords decline to sell, 
that the old troubles may reappear. Under such conditions the 
cry for compulsory sale will, it is said, be revived, and Parliament 
will not hesitate to expropriate a small minority that obstructs the 
settled policy of the country. On the other hand, it must be 
borne in mind that the very system of land purchase creates an 
ever-increasing body of proprietors (for the tenant purchasers are 
virtually such), deeply interested in the maintenance of social 
order. How far this moderating influence will be effective remains 
to be seen. It ought to prove a powerful restraint on any extreme 
movement. 

Quite distinct from the question of transfer of land ownership 
from one class to another is that of the possible changes that 
the act will bring about in Irish agriculture. One undoubted 
result of the act of 1881 was the discouragement to investment of 



THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1903 913 

capital on the part of the landlord, and also to improvements by 
the tenant. A system under which rent is periodically revised 
makes it the tenant's interest to let the land deteriorate ; the 
constant litigation about improvements stops their being carried 
out. The intense dissatisfaction felt by both parties proves the 
failure of the judicial tenancy plan. 

Purchase will take this dead weight off Irish agriculture and 
give scope for progress. The chief danger for the future in this 
respect is the unsuitable character of so many Irish holdings. In 
the Congested Districts there are small farms, or rather plots, 
situated on poor soil. Elsewhere large farms of good land are 
the rule. The best endeavors of administrators cannot speedily 
change this condition. The slow and steady action of economic 
forces is the only complete remedy, and this is only possible if 
freedom of movement and trade is allowed. 

The energetic and the thrifty must be permitted to come to the 
front ; the feeble and incompetent cannot be permanently left in 
possession of the soil. Agricultural progress, like industrial, 
depends on bringing forward the best men, and giving to skill 
and providence their due reward. A good system of land tenure 
is an essential prerequisite, but it is only a prerequisite ; and, 
indeed, any form of ownership which tends to stereotype existing 
conditions is certain in the modern economic world to prove evil. 
It is, therefore, essential to the ultimate success of the purchase 
legislation that it should be supplemented by reform and simpli- 
fication of the general land law. The complicated rights and the 
restraints on alienation (though the latter are much reduced), 
which are characteristic of the English real property law, are 
altogether unsuited for a land where there is a large majority of 
peasant owners. The small proprietor class either gradually dies 
out or lingers on in a distressed condition under the cost and 
uncertainty of the law. Legal reform is, then, absolutely neces- 
sary ; and there is good reason to hope that it will be carried out 
in company with the process of transfer which the act of 1903 is 
designed to accomplish. 



STATE BOUNTIES AND THE BEET-SUGAR 
INDUSTRY 

By P. T. Cherington 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXVI, p. 381, 
February, 191 2) 

STATE bounties as a method of stimulating the development 
of the beet-sugar industry in the United States were most 
in vogue from 1895 to 1898. There were some cases of state- 
bounty granting before this and a few have occurred since, but the 
main activity took place during the three years following the expi- 
ration of the bounty period of the McKinley Law (July 1, 1895). 

As a rule the state bounties granted during this period took 
the form of a rate per pound (usually 1 cent) paid on the sugar 
product, and commonly providing as a condition of payment that 
the beet growers be paid at least a stipulated price per ton for 
the beets (usually $5). On the most common basis — 1 cent for 
sugar bounty, with $5 per ton to be paid for beets — the extra 
beet p'rice nearly offset the bounty on sugar, so that the beet 
growers in fact secured most of the money paid out under the 
bounty law. 

Nebraska was one of the pioneers in the payment of beet- 
sugar bounties. That state had two experiences with the practice, 
one before and the other during the time of greatest activity in 
state-bounty payments. In the year 1889, when the Oxnards 
established a beet-sugar factory at Grand Island, Nebraska, that 
enterprise was fostered in a number of ways, including an out- 
right gift of the land on which the factory stood, a cash bonus, 
and a state bounty of 1 cent per pound on sugar produced. This 
bounty yielded $7364 for the campaign of 1890 ; in the following 
year the bounty was withdrawn. The same group of capital 
undertook to establish a second factory at Norfolk, Nebraska, in 

914 



STATE BOUNTIES AND BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY 915 

1892. But the farmers of the district, in view of the election 
results, which pointed to the repeal of the McKinley bounty, 
were not very enthusiastic about the enterprise ; and this, com- 
bined with the dry year of 1894, almost killed the industry in 
that state. 

In March, 1895, the state came to the rescue of the languish- 
ing industry, and the legislature passed a new bounty law, offer- 
ing I cent a pound on all sugar manufactured, provided the beets 
brought the farmers at least $5 a ton. Since the amount of bounty 
on the finished sugar just about covered the extra cost of the beets, 
it amounted virtually to a bonus of $1 a ton for the beet growers. 
Under the stimulus of this law some 9000 acres were put under 
beets for the two Nebraska factories for the crop of 1895. The 
legislature of 1896 did not favor the principle and repealed the 
bounty law. The Grand Island and the Norfolk factories never- 
theless paid the farmers the extra price for beets and filed with 
the state a claim for the bounties, due under the old law. This 
claim, which amounted to $40,000, was in the courts for a 
number of years, and it was not until 1904 that the law finally 
was declared unconstitutional. The two subsidized factories, and 
two others established later, have all gone out of business, except 
that at Grand Island. 

The state of Michigan had an experience with bounties which 
in many respects was even more striking than that of Nebraska ; 
though the industry established under the impulse given by the 
bounty law has survived in Michigan much better than it did 
in Nebraska, a result due, no doubt, to natural conditions more 
favorable to the industry in Michigan than in the latter state. 
The legislature of 1897, in Michigan, passed a law providing for 
a bounty of 1 cent per pound to be paid for sugar made from 
beets for which at least $4 per ton had been paid to the farmers. 
An appropriation of $10,000 was made to cover the payment of 
the bounty, and it was provided by the law that any excess over 
this amount should come from the general fund not otherwise 
appropriated. It was further provided that any factory with a 
capacity of at least 2000 pounds of sugar per day, erected while 
this act was in force, should be entitled to receive the bounty for 



91 6 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

a period of at least seven years from the date of the enactment 
of the law, March 26, 1897. The Michigan Sugar Company, 
with a factory at Bay City, in the campaign of 1898, made over 
7,500,000 pounds of sugar and, therefore, claimed $75,000 in 
bounties from the state. By 1899 there were eight companies 
in operation, and their combined bounty claims for that year 
amounted to $301,106.13. 

The legislature of 1899, frightened by the large amount of 
the claims made under this bounty law, amended the act, reduc- 
ing the bounty to l cent per pound ; but the legislature refused 
to fix the limit of the bounty at $25,000 as recommended by 
the governor, and accordingly the governor vetoed the new 
law, leaving the old law still in effect. The matter was then 
brought before the Supreme Court of Michigan in connection 
with a suit for bounties unpaid, and the court declared the law 
unconstitutional, since it was " not a proper expense of the state 
on which a tax could be predicated." A large part of the indus- 
try thus artificially stimulated remained in Michigan even after 
the bounty law was declared unconstitutional, and Michigan 
to-day ranks as the third largest beet-sugar-producing state in 
the Union. 

The legislature of the state of New York, on May 18, 1897, 
passed a bounty law, appropriating $25,000 to be given to beet- 
sugar manufacturers, provided none received more than 1 cent per 
pound, and provided also that the factories should pay to the 
farmers not less than $5 per ton for the beets used in manu- 
facturing the sugar on which the bounty was paid. In 1898, 
$50,000 was appropriated to cover the expense of this bounty. 
Though the maximum limit of the bounty was subsequently re- 
duced to 1 cent per pound, the policy of paying a direct bounty 
for sugar production in the state of New York was not entirely 
abandoned until the year 1907. Of three factories operating in 
New York under the law at various times, one still survives. 

Utah is one of the few states which has paid a sugar bounty 
without any apparent subsequent regrets or change of heart. In 
the year 1896, the state voted a one-cent-per-pound bounty to 
the new factory at Lehi, and it seems to be pretty generally 



STATE BOUNTIES AND BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY 917 

agreed that this aid, granted for the first two years, was an 
important factor in the firm establishment of that plant as a 
successful manufacturing enterprise and a profitable outlet for 
a new crop. 

Kansas first passed a beet-sugar-bounty law in 1887. This 
law which gave a bounty of 2 cents per pound on beet sugar was 
amended in 1891, when the rate was cut to f cent. The largest 
sum paid in any one year under these laws was $50,304, in 
1 89 1. After 1896 the beet-sugar industry was abandoned in the 
state. Sugar-beet growing was subsidized directly by a new bounty 
law passed in 1901. This law differs from nearly all other state- 
bounty laws in that the bounty of $1 a ton on beets grown was 
paid directly to the farmers instead of being paid indirectly by 
the sugar factory. A limit of $5000 was set for this bounty, and it 
was provided that if the claims for bounty totalled more than this 
amount, the $5000 should be divided pro rata among all growers 
on the basis of their tonnage. In 1901 the farmers of the state 
received $1747, and by 1904 the $5000 limit was passed. In 
that year, 6378 tons were produced, so that the farmers each 
received almost the full bounty of $1 per ton. In 1905 there 
were 8605 tons grown by 132 farmers, and in 1906, 69,000 tons 
were grown by 245 farmers. Of this total, 11,000 tons were 
grown by the United States Sugar and Land Company and 
were chiefly manufactured at the company's plant at Garden 
City, although small quantities were shipped by them to other 
factories, not under control of the company, at Holly, Colorado, 
and at Leavitt, near Ames, Nebraska. 

The state of Idaho passed a bounty law which was brought 
into the courts before any money was paid under it, and was 
finally declared unconstitutional only a short time before the 
bounty period provided by the law expired automatically in 1904. 

The state of Washington, in 1898, passed a law providing for 
a bounty of 1 cent per pound on raw sugar, with a limit of 
$50,000. This was to be paid only to factories built before 
November 1, 1899 (afterwards extended to 1901). It was to be 
in effect only three years. Only one factory made claims for 
bounties under this law. 



91 8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

The state of Minnesota, in 1898, passed a bounty law and 
paid bounties in 1898 and 1899 to a single factory. The pay- 
ment was refused in 1900, and the law, under contest, was 
declared unconstitutional. 

Iowa and Wisconsin varied the form of bounty somewhat, 
by not giving a direct money payment, but providing merely 
for exemption of the beet-sugar factories from taxation, the 
Wisconsin law running for five years from 1897. 

The states of South Dakota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illi- 
nois form a group of states in which a bounty law was passed for 
beet-sugar production, but in which no money was ever paid out, 
because no one came forward who had complied with the require- 
ments of the statutes. The state of New Jersey had a peculiar 
experience in that a bounty law was passed by the legislature in 
1898, but was vetoed by the governor, on the ground that ex- 
periments did not indicate sufficient reason to believe that the 
establishment of the industry was feasible in the state. 



BEET SUGAR 

By Frank William Taussig, Ph. D., Litt. D. 

(From " Some Aspects of the Tariff Question," chap, vii, p. 80) 

[Many footnotes are omitted from this reprint. The reader is referred to 
the original article. — Ed.] 

THE beet-sugar industry presents questions essentially differ- 
ent from those considered in the preceding chapters. The 
sugar beet is grown in the temperate zone, and its cultivation is 
one among many possible forms of agriculture. In view of its 
peculiar position and significance, it deserves careful and detailed 
consideration. 

Chronologically, the beet-sugar supply is among the later addi- 
tions to the total for the United States. Barring a slight amount 
from one or two California enterprises, no beet sugar at all was 
produced in the country before 1890. The bounty given by the 
tariff act of that year (1890) is often referred to in the literature 
on the subject, especially that put forth by protectionists, as hav- 
ing had a stimulating effect on the industry. Though this bounty 
was no more than an equivalent for the duty then remitted, it 
may have given some impetus, for the same psychological reasons 
as in the case of the Louisiana planters. Several states also gave 
bounties for the production of beet sugar, usually moderate in 
amount and limited in time ; these constituting, so far as they 
went, a substantial bonus. Probably no less effective than the 
bounties at the start, and more effective as time went on, was the 
propaganda of the Department of Agriculture. That depart- 
ment preached beet-sugar in season and out of season ; spread 
broadcast pamphlets dilating on the advantages of beet growing 
for the farmer and giving minute directions on methods of cul- 
tivation ; maintained a special agent, who kept in touch with the 

919 



920 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

manufacturers and farmers, and annually reported on the prog- 
ress of the industry. The result was familiarity with the possi- 
bilities throughout the country, the removal of all obstacles from 
inertia and ignorance, and a rapid development in all regions 
where there was a promise of profits. 

At all events, the beet-sugar product increased rapidly after 
1890. It quadrupled between 1890 and 1900, and more than 
quadrupled between 1900 and 19 10 — a remarkable rate of 
growth. Far from remaining insignificant and quite negligible, 
its contribution to the country's sugar supply became more and 
more important. It surpassed that of Louisiana cane sugar, 
equalled that from Hawaii, and itself was surpassed only by the 
supply from Cuba. In round numbers, over one billion pounds 
of beet sugar were produced in each of the four years, 1908- 
1912. The years 1912-1913 and 1913-1914 still showed a 
marked increase. 

Equally significant and striking was the geographical distribu- 
tion of the industry. The tabular statement on the next page 
shows what that distribution was. 

One. fact is obvious on a cursory inspection of these figures. 
The beet-sugar industry is in the main massed in the Far West — 
in California, Utah, Colorado, and the adjacent region. The 
agricultural belt of the Central States has a very slender share. 
Only one state in this part of the country, Michigan, makes a 
considerable contribution to the supply. Wisconsin and Ohio 
(not separately given in the table) each adds a little. No other 
state in this region has more than one beet-sugar factory. Bar- 
ring Michigan, the production of beet sugar may be said to be 
confined to the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states. 

The explanation of this geographical concentration does not 
lie in any obstacles from climate or soil in other parts of the 
country. The beet flourishes over a very wide area. An instruc- 
tive pamphlet issued by the Department of Agriculture shows the 
zone in which the sugar beet may be expected to * attain its 
highest perfection." This zone, or belt, two hundred miles wide, 
starts at the Hudson, and sweeps across the country to the 
Dakotas ; turns southward through Colorado, New Mexico, and 



BEET SUGAR 



921 



BEET-SUGAR PRODUCT IN THE UNITED STATES 1 



Year 


Total 


California 


Utah 


Colorado 


Michigan 


Wisconsin 


Other States 


1 899- I 900 . . 


163 


85 


19 


2 


33 




24 


I 900-I 90 1 






172 


57 


17 


J 3 


55 




3° 


1901-1902 






365 


140 


28 


45 


105 


6 


41 


I 902-I 903 






438 


159 


38 


78 


109 


8 


46 


1903-1904 






466 


136 


46 


89 


128 


11 


56 


I 904- I 90 5 






470 


93 


57 


in 


104 


22 


83 


1905-1906 






635 


144 


48 


209 


122 


27 


85 


I 906- I 907 






970 


178 


82 


343 


177 


36 


154 


I907-1908 






852 


180 


93 


245 


171 


37 


126 


I 908-I 909 






1025 


255 


98 


299 


212 


34 


127 


1909-1910 






1 1 20 


280 


77 


206 


278 


36 


243 


1910-1911 






1019 


291 


76 


206 


260 


38 


148 


1911-1912 






1 199 


323 


115 


250 


251 


57 


203 


1912-1913 






1385 


3i8 


119 


432 


190 


46 


139 


1913-1914 






1467 


342 


114 


448 


244 


25 


140 



Arizona ; and then, turning again, proceeds west and northwest 
through California, Utah, Idaho, and the Columbia valley. It 
includes a great part of the north-central region. Yet in the 
last mentioned, the most important and productive agricultural 
region of the country, there is virtually no beet growing or sugar 
making, except, as just mentioned, in Michigan. The climatic 
and agricultural possibilities are not turned to account until the 
Far West is reached. 

The reason for the absence of beet growing and hence of 
sugar-beet production in the north-central region is to be found 
in the principle of comparative advantage — agriculture is applied 
with greater effectiveness in other directions. It is not that the 
climate or soil or even the men make it more difficult to grow 
beets here than in Europe. It is simply that other ways of using 
the land are found more advantageous. 

An excellent investigator in the agricultural aspects of the 
beet-sugar industry has said : " The growing of beets is not 
agriculture, but horticulture." All the manuals and pamphlets 
insist on the need of elaborate preparation, minute care, much 



1 In million pounds. 



922 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

labor directly in the fields. The planting of the seed does indeed 
take place by drills, the plants coming up in continuous rov/s. 
But after this first operation, painstaking manual labor is called 
for. When the young shoots come up, they need first to be 
blocked, then thinned. " Blocking " means that most of the beets 
in the rows are cut out by a hoe, only small bunches being left, 
about ten inches apart. These bunches are then "thinned"; 
every plant is pulled out by hand except one, the largest and 
healthiest. !,■ Great care should be exercised in this work, and by 
careful selection all the inferior plants should be removed. . . . 
When thinning, it is a good plan to give the ground a thorough 
hand hoeing." Throughout the growing period the beets must be 
cultivated, partly with a horse cultivator, partly with the hand 
hoe. " The cultivator and the hoe should be used alternately 
until the beets are too large for horse cultivation without injuring 
them. Hand laborers should continue to go over the beet field, 
pulling weeds and grass that may have persisted." 

Essentially the same situation appears when harvesting is 
reached. The beets may be first loosened by a plow and by a 
lifter ; but each individual beet must be pulled out by hand. 
Then they are knocked together gently to remove the adhering 
dirt. Finally, they are "topped"; that is, the neck and leaves 
are cut off with a large knife. w The removal of the tops of the 
beets is a tedious process, which in Europe is performed by 
women and children. . . . Constant supervision is necessary in 
this work." 

No machinery has been devised that serves to dispense with 
the large amount of hand labor called for. " Several attempts 
have been made to construct a mechanical device by which the 
beets can be topped, thus saving a large expense, and perhaps a 
successful device of this kind may some day be invented. So far 
as is known at the present time (1908), however, this process 
has not been successfully accomplished by machinery, and the 
topping must still be done by hand." M Inventive ingenuity in 
Europe and especially in America," said the Special Agent of 
the Department of Agriculture in 1906, "has been directed to 
planning a harvester which will do away, as far as possible, with 



BEET SUGAR 923 

this expensive hand work. ... It cannot be said that any of 
these newly devised implements works successfully in all soils." 
In 191 2 the Department's report again had to confess that M a 
really successful beet topping and harvesting machine " was yet 
to be devised, and that " at present all the operations of pulling, 
topping and loading are done by hand." 

It follows that the successful growing of the sugar beet calls 
for a large amount of monotonous unskilled labor. No small part of 
it is labor that can be done by women and children and tempts 
to their utilization. Not only does the typical American farm and 
farm community lack the number of laborers required ; the labor 
itself is of a kind distasteful to the farmers. " Thinning and 
weeding by hand while on one's knees is not a work or posture 
agreeable to the average American farmer. Bending over the 
rows and crawling along them on one's hands and knees all day 
long are things that the contracting farmer is sure to object to as 
drudgery. . . . Our farmers ride on their stirring plows, culti- 
vators, and many implements." As was remarked by a witness 
at a tariff hearing, " The thinning and the topping of the beets 
it is pretty hard to get our American fellows to do, and they 
prefer to hire the labor and pay for it." 

Anticipating for a moment what will be said in the following 
paragraphs of the beet-sugar industry of the Mountain and 
Pacific regions, it may be pointed out how this need of extra 
labor has been met. The labor situation is instructive not only 
as regards the beet-sugar industry itself but also as regards the 
general trend in the United States during the last generation. 

Almost everywhere in the beet-sugar districts we find laborers 
who are employed or contracted for in gangs — an inferior class 
which is utilized, perhaps exploited, by a superior. The agri- 
cultural laborers in the beet fields are usually a very different 
set from the farmers. On the Pacific coast they are Chinese or 
Japanese. Except in Southern California, where the Mexicans are 
near at hand, most of the work is done by Japanese, under con- 
tract ; there being usually a head contractor, a sort of " sweater," 
who undertakes to furnish the men. In very recent years Hindus 
(brought down from British Columbia) also have appeared in 



924 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the beet fields of California. In Colorado " immigrants from 
Old Mexico compete with New Mexicans (i.e., born in New 
Mexico), Russians, and Japanese." Indians from the reserva- 
tions have been employed in Colorado. At one time, convict 
labor was used in Nebraska. In some parts of Colorado, in 
Montana, and at the beet fields of the single factory in Kansas, 
refugees from German colonies established long ago in Russia 
are employed. In Michigan, the main labor supply comes from 
the Polish and Bohemian population of Cleveland, Buffalo, Pitts- 
burgh. The circulars issued by the Department of Agriculture 
and by the state boards and bureaus repeatedly call the atten- 
tion of the beet farmers to the possibility of employing cheap 
immigrants. The troublesome labor problems, it is said, need 
not cause worry : here is a large supply of just the persons 
wanted. " Living in cities there is a class of foreigners — 
Germans, French, Russians, Hollanders, Austrians, Bohemians 
— who have had more or less experience in beet growing in their 
native countries. . . . Every spring sees large colonies of this 
class of workmen moving out from our cities into the beet fields." 
The sugar manufacturers, who buy the beets and make the 
sugar in their factories, play a large part in bringing this labor 
to the fields. Indeed, they play a large part in every phase 
of the industry — on its agricultural side as well as on its manu- 
facturing side. They supply seed ; give the farmers elaborate 
directions on methods of cultivation ; employ supervisors to visit 
and inspect the farms and to spur the farmers to the needed 
minute care ; of necessity they test the beets at the factory 
and pay according to sugar content ; and they often undertake 
to provide the labor. Sometimes the factories contract to attend 
to the field labor themselves, receiving from the farmers a speci- 
fied price — so much for bunching and thinning, so much for 
each hoeing, so much for topping. The farmers then have noth- 
ing to do but supply " reasonable " living accommodations. More 
often farmers not thus provided for secure their laborers through 
contractors, at a fixed price of so much (varying from #15 to 
$20) per acre for all the work ; these middlemen being hunted 
up or selected for the farmers by the factory managers. Such 



BEET SUGAR 925 

sweaters make a profit from their sub-contract with the field 
hands ; the system being open to the possibilities of overreaching, 
which are too familiar under such arrangements. 

All this is part of the transformation which has been wrought 
in so many parts of our social and economic structure during 
the last quarter of a century by the great inflow of immigrants. 
Agriculture as well as manufacturing industry is feeling the 
influence of the new conditions. Laborers from the congested 
foreign districts of the cities — Italians, Bohemians, "Huns," 
" Polacks," Russians — make their way to the market gardens 
surrounding the cities, to vegetable districts such as that of the 
Chesapeake peninsula, to the cranberry fields of New Jersey ; 
these do the hard work for the shrewd Yankee farmers. Some 
of them may be on the way to the acquisition of land through 
their savings. But certainly for the time being the conditions 
are socially and industrially unwelcome. They are not dissimi- 
lar to those of the Sachsengangerei, of ill repute in eastern 
Germany. They are very different from the conditions which 
we think of as typical of agriculture in the United States. As 
in these analogous cases, so in the beet fields, there is an 
agricultural proletariat. 

As yet, however, the main agricultural region of the United 
States — the great central region in which are the wheat and 
corn belts — has been little affected. Here we still find exten- 
sive cultivation, agricultural machinery, the one-family farm. It 
is true that during the harvest season there is a heavy demand 
for agricultural laborers, and that this is satisfied by laborers who 
may be said also to constitute an agricultural proletariat. It is 
true, further, that the stage of pioneer farming has been passed 
or is rapidly being passed, that rotation is becoming more sys- 
tematic and skilful, the land more valuable, cultivation more in- 
tensive. Nevertheless, this remains the region of the one-family 
farm. The farmers "ride on their stirring plows and cultivators" 
and in this way are able to do most of the work on their lands 
for themselves. 

Throughout the corn belt, more particularly, there is no sugar- 
beet industry of any moment. It pays better to raise corn ; there 



926 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

is a clear comparative advantage in corn growing. This grain is 
peculiarly adapted to extensive agriculture. It also lends itself 
readily to the use of machinery ; corn can be " cultivated " be- 
tween the rows by horse power. It is a substitute for root crops, 
and can be rotated steadily with small-grain crops. It is a direct 
competitor with the sugar beet for cattle fattening. The advocates 
of beet raising always lay stress on the value of the beet pulp, 
the residue at the factory after the juice has been extracted, for 
cattle feeding. But corn is at least equally valuable for the pur- 
pose, and the typical American farmer raises it by agricultural 
methods which he finds both profitable and congenial. One man 
can grow forty acres of corn. He can plant only twenty acres of 
beets ; and these he cannot possibly thin and top. In Iowa "the 
farmers are progressive, successful, and satisfied. In fact, this 
has been the main obstacle to installing the sugar industry there. 
The farmers have not shown a disposition to grow the beets. 
When the farmers are advised that beet culture is accompanied 
with considerable hard work, factory propositions usually succumb 
to the inevitable. The farming class of the state is accustomed 
to the use of labor-saving implements in the fields." 

It is not an accident that the states of the Great Lakes region 
in which the sugar-beet industry has shown some development 
— Michigan and, in much less degree, Ohio and Wisconsin — 
are outside the corn belt. Except along the southern edge of 
these states, the grain does mot ordinarily mature. Yet even here 
corn remains a formidable competitor of the sugar beet, in its 
use through ensilage. It is cut green, stored in the silos, and 
so is available for cattle feeding. It continues to be available in 
rotation with other grain and with grass. During the last two 
decades Wisconsin has become a great dairy state. "The pasture, 
hay, and corn lands of the state form the basis of the livestock 
industry." Here there is a profitable system of agriculture in 
which there is no need of the minute attention, the elaborate 
cultivation, the wearisome labor, which are required for the sugar 
beet. As compared with the Far West, Michigan and Wisconsin, 
as will presently appear, lack some climatic advantages. A tariff 
subsidy may make, it worth while for their farmers to grow the 



BEET SUGAR 927 

beets ; but without the subsidy this use of the land cannot com- 
pete with others more advantageous. 

When the tariff legislation of 191 3 was under consideration the 
beet-sugar makers of Michigan pleaded strenuously for the main- 
tenance of protection on the ground of consideration for vested 
interests. It must be admitted that the plea was in one regard 
of exceptional force. Not only had the general policy of protec- 
tion been long maintained by Congress and investment in accord 
with it encouraged, but, as one of the witnesses before the Ways 
and Means Committee said in 1909, " The investment which our 
company made in the sugar business was made on the invitation 
and urgent advice of the United States government through its 
Department of Agriculture." It was a serious responsibility which 
the department thus took on itself. Its zeal too often was indis- 
criminate. Its propaganda rested, in part at least, on a crudely 
mercantilist principle — on the assumption that it is desirable to 
produce within our own borders anything and everything that can 
possibly be produced there, and that a tariff policy based on this 
assumption will be maintained indefinitely. 

Turn now to the Far West, where most of the beet sugar is 
made. Two conditions are favorable to beet growing in this 
western region : the climate and the special advantages of 
irrigation. 

The variety of the beet suitable for sugar making flourishes in 
a cool climate, but it needs plenty of sun. " Abundance of sun- 
shine is essential to the highest development of sugar in the 
beet. Other things being equal, it may be said that the richness 
of the beet will be proportional to the amount — not intensity — 
of the sunshine." Evidently the cool region of cloudless sky in 
the arid West meets this condition perfectly. 

Again : "In respect to moisture, the sugar beet is peculiar in 
some respects. . . . There are three periods in the life history 
of the sugar beet which demand entirely different treatment so 
far as moisture is concerned: (1) the germinating or plantlet 
period ; (2) the growing period ; (3) the sugar-storing period." 
During the first, " the beet needs sufficient moisture and warmth 
to germinate and start it, but never an excess." During the 



928 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

second, V the beet needs little if any moisture." During the third, 
or sugar-storing period, " the plant should be given no water. 
The conditions desirable at this period are plenty of light and 
dry cool weather. If the beet is given moisture to any consider- 
able extent, it will be at the expense of both sugar and purity." 

The irrigated regions' of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, 
supply just the right combination of climate and moisture — cool 
temperature, abundant sunshine, moisture as needed, absence of 
moisture when harmful. Hence Colorado and Utah are described 
as the ideal beet-sugar states. " Considering everything, Utah is 
the ideal beet-sugar state. ... Its natural conditions are quite 
similar to those of Colorado." In Colorado 12 to 25 tons of 
beets to the acre are readily secured ; even in the early days 1 5 
to 1 7 -J tons were got on the average ; whereas in European 
countries not only is the tonnage per acre less, but the sugar 
content smaller. California, where the industry first was under- 
taken on any considerable scale, and where it has grown steadily, 
has some special advantages. A good part of its beet district has 
just the required combination of climate and precipitation. 1 

Contrast such exceptionally favorable climatic conditions with 
those of the Great Lakes region. The successive reports of the 
Department of Agriculture dwell on the uncertainty of the beet- 
sugar crop in this zone because of the irregularity of rain and 
sunshine. The Michigan farmer, unlike the grower in the 
irrigated region, cannot count with certainty on abundant sunshine 

1 " The exceptional soil and climatological conditions in California seem pecul- 
iarly adapted to the production of beets with a high sugar content. While their 
reported yield per acre is not so great as that of some other states, the sugar 
content is decidedly in excess of any other, so that with an acreage considerably 
less than that of Michigan the total yield of sugar is much more. The calculated 
yield per acre for the past season was very nearly 3310 pounds. Many of the 
California soils are very retentive of moisture, so that with an annual rainfall far 
below that of the central and eastern part of the country beets can be grown 
successfully without irrigation. The little rain which they have is usually so nicely 
distributed through the early and middle seasons of growth as to leave almost 
ideal conditions for the period of ripening, with its accompanying storage of 
sugar in the cells. This ripening process is also materially assisted by the alter- 
nation of cool nights and warm days, a condition which seems best suited to the 
formation and storage of sugar in this plant." — Report on Beet-Sugar Industry 
in 1910 and 1911, p. 19 



BEET SUGAR 929 

and cannot apply moisture exactly when needed — difficulties 
which threaten not only the quantity of the crop but also its 
saccharine content. 

The same climatic difficulties are encountered in the European 
countries where sugar beets are grown. There also the beet 
harvest and the sugar output are greatly affected by the weather 
during the growing and harvesting season. The north central 
states of our own country are not in this respect at a disadvantage. 
But they possess no climatic superiority for beet growing ; 
whereas they do possess agricultural and industrial superiority 
for other crops. Beet growing, in other words, suffers from a 
comparative disadvantage. The Far Western region, on the other 
hand, does have unusual natural advantages for the sugar beet. 
Whether these natural advantages are so great as to enable the 
industry to hold its own, in free competition with cane sugar 
and with beet sugar made in the European regions of perma- 
nently cheap labor supply, is another question. But they explain 
why, under the stimulus of protection, the industry grew fast 
in that region, and in widely distributed parts of it ; while yet 
under the same stimulus it made little progress in the typical 
agricultural states. 

It is constantly said, with reference both to the Mountain 
states and to those of the central region, that the culture of 
the sugar beet brings special agricultural benefits. The high 
cultivation, it is said, improves the quality of the land ; general 
fertility is enhanced ; a better rotation is established ; the by- 
products, especially the beet cake, are valuable for cattle feeding, 
and this in turn provides manure and maintains fertility ; the 
factory makes a market for local coal and lime ; it " stimulates 
banking and almost all kinds of mercantile business." These 
advantages have been dwelt on almost ad nauseam in the pub- 
lications of the Department of Agriculture. So far as the tariff 
question is concerned, they prove altogether too much. If beet 
culture is so very advantageous for the farmer, why does he 
need a bonus or protective tariff to be induced to engage in it ? 
The American farmer is not an ignorant or stolid person ; he has 
access to a multitude of educational and propagandist agencies, 



930 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and is even beset by them ; he is a shrewd observer, a ready 
innovator. With the. transition from pioneer farming, the agri- 
cultural methods of the central region have been revolutionized 
during the past generation. If beet culture were really so ad- 
vantageous a part of the general change, we might expect its 
speedy and wide-spread adoption. The advocates of beet growing 
have simply accepted the common and fallacious notion that the 
highest cultivation is necessarily the most advantageous cultiva- 
tion. The agricultural expert is apt to be intent on the gross 
product, on the largest yield per acre. But the best agriculture 
is that which secures the largest yield not per unit of area but 
per unit of labor. Minute cultivation means a large product per 
acre but by no means necessarily a large product per man. 

The only solid ground for maintaining that protection for beet 
sugar has been of advantage to agriculture is that of the young- 
industries argument. Ignorance, settled habits and prejudices, 
unaccustomed methods, the inevitable failures in first trials, ' all 
these obstacles may have stood in the way of the beet-sugar 
industry in its first stages. It is true that the argument for 
protection to young industries was • not supposed to apply to 
agriculture by List and his followers, since unalterable conditions 
of soil and climate were thought to determine once for all the 
geographical distribution of the extractive industries. It would, 
perhaps, be hazardous to lay down an unqualified proposition of 
this sort. The course of industry may conceivably be guided 
and diverted to advantage in agriculture as well as in manufac- 
tures. The difference between the two cases would seem to be 
simply one of probability, of degree. None the less, an impor- 
tant difference in degree remains. It is more likely that industry 
will pursue its " natural " course in agriculture than in manu- 
factures ; since agriculture is affected much more by the physical 
factors of soil and climate and much less by acquired skill. 

There are still other grounds for questioning the applicability 
to agriculture of the young industries-argument. There is not 
in agriculture that close contact between different producers or 
that stress of competition between them which is most likely to 
lead to improvements ; and a stimulus to improvement is the 



BEET SUGAR 931 

essence of the argument. In the contemporary German con- 
troversy, considerations of this sort have been advanced in sup- 
port of the duties on grain ; but there is quite as much weight 
in the counter argument that agricultural improvement is most 
effectively spurred by adversity. It comes not from high prices 
and easy gains, but low prices and the need of facing a difficult 
situation. The low prices of sugar which prevailed for a con- 
siderable period (especially in the decade 1890- 1900) proved a 
blessing in disguise to the Louisiana sugar planters ; their 
methods of cultivation and sugar extraction were improved in 
the effort to meet conditions of depression. The same seems 
to have been the case with the Hawaiian planters during the 
period (1 890-1 894) of free sugar. It has already been pointed 
out how difficult it is to say whether protection tends on 
the whole to promote technical improvement or to retard it. 
A general proposition one way or the other would be as hard to 
prove conclusively with reference to agriculture as with refer- 
ence to manufactures. But it seems clear that acquired skill 
and established advantages count for more in manufactures than 
in agriculture ; and that tariff protection is therefore an even 
less promising device for promoting better use of the soil. 
Education, experiment stations, diffusion of the right sort of 
information, are much more promising. But education and the 
spread of information, to be really effective, must be adapted to 
the economic conditions. In this regard our Department of 
Agriculture for many years showed no discrimination. Under the 
Republican regime of 1897-19 13 its publications were pervaded 
by a crude mercantilism. Its propaganda for beet sugar rested 
not on the young-industry and eventual-independence principle, 
but on the crude protectionist doctrine that any and every increase 
of domestic supply was necessarily to the country's advantage. 

Questions in some respects different arise concerning the beet- 
sugar factory, which buys the beets from the farmers and makes 
the sugar. Here there is what the business world calls " a straight 
manufacturing proposition." Whether the manufacturing of sugar 
can be done to advantage in the United States depends on the 
same conditions as in other manufactures. It is much affected 



932 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

by the opportunities for using machinery and for the exercise 
of American inventive and engineering capacity in improving 
machinery. Such evidence as I can get indicates that so far as 
this branch of the industry is concerned, the conditions are not 
unfavorable to its sustained prosecution with little need, if any, 
of tariff support. When the first factories were built in California 
the machinery was imported from Germany. •* The Yankee in- 
ventive genius of machinery men at once took hold of the matter, 
making so valuable improvements that both the above-mentioned 
factories (at Watson ville and at Chino) were shortly refitted with 
machines of American make, and every factory in this country 
in the last few years has purchased American machines." So in 
the Department of Agriculture's pamphlet on the industry, it is 
stated that " in the early days of the beet-sugar industry in this 
country, Europe was called on to furnish all machinery. Now 
very little is imported, and in fact some of the foreign factories 
are using American-made machinery." The breaking loose from 
European tutelage and the introduction of technical improvements 
are significant indications of the successful adaptation of a new 
industry to American conditions and of the ability to meet foreign 
competition unaided. It should be borne in mind, moreover, that 
the factory managers take an active part in directing and super- 
vising the agricultural operations. In this regard there seems 
to be abundant and successful enterprise. The managers of the 
beet-sugar factories have been chiefly instrumental in bringing 
the indispensable labor supply to the farms. Through traction 
engines and the like they have grappled with the difficulties of 
transporting the beets from the field to the factory. They have 
selected the seeds and have assiduously spread information 
among the farmers on the best ways of getting a large tonnage 
of beets and a large content of sugar. In the Far West especially, 
all this activity has been carried on with industrial and pecuniary 
success. Neither in the factory itself nor in the problems of or- 
ganization arising from the interdependence of farm and factory 
has there been a lack of skill or energy. 

It is probably another sign of successful adaptation to new con- 
ditions that the American beet-sugar factory carries its operations 



BEET SUGAR 933 

a stage further than do the factories of Europe. The latter 
usually produce raw sugar only, which is sent to refineries for 
the last stage of preparation ; precisely as our cane sugar is im- 
ported in the " raw " form, and goes through the refineries before 
being marketed for consumption. The American beet-sugar fac- 
tories, on the other hand, make refined (granulated) sugar, which 
is sold at once to the grocers. In Europe the greater geographical 
concentration of beet growing and sugar making, and the conse- 
quent ease of transportation to refineries near by, probably account 
for the practice there prevailing. The different American practice 
doubtless took its start because refining was controlled, during 
the earlier years of beet sugar, by the Sugar Trust and its affili- 
ated concerns ; but it persisted because it fitted the geographical 
and industrial conditions of the industry. Another reason is that 
in continental Europe beet farming and sugar making constitute 
commonly one integrated enterprise, and are associated either 
with estate farming on a large scale or with direct cooperation 
between large-scale agriculturists and the factory owners. A dif- 
ferent sort of cooperation between farm and factory was neces- 
sary under our conditions of land ownership, and this has been 
worked out successfully by the American manufacturers. Neither 
in the technical aspects of the manufacturing industry nor in 
its appropriate organization is there indication of disadvantage in 
the United States. 

This brings us to the close of our examination of the sources 
of sugar supply and their relation to the tariff. Let us now, by 
way of summary, proceed to a quantitative estimate of the conse- 
quences of the duty on raw sugar, postponing for the moment 
the consideration of the effect (comparatively slight, as will 
shortly be shown) of the additional duty on refined sugar. 

The burden of the sugar duty can be measured with greater 
exactness than is often possible. We know that the price of 
sugar was raised by the duty throughout the area of consumption. 
In this case, we have no reason to question the significance of 
continued imports. The only serious qualification which needs to 
be made is that which arises for the later years from the uneven 



934 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



and irregular effect of the partial remission on Cuban sugar. 
Except for this, we could say with confidence that from 1897 to 
191 3 the price of sugar was raised, the country over, by the full 
amount of the duty — one and two-thirds cents a pound. Allowing 
for the modifying influence of the Cuban remission, we may make 
our calculations on the assumption that the effect of the duty dur- 
ing the years immediately preceding 191 3 was to raise the price of 
all sugar by one and one-half cents. The figure may not be accu- 
rate to the last dot ; but the economist is fortunate when he can 
measure his results with so close an approach to exactness as this. 
Of the tax paid by consumers in the form of enhanced price, 
a little less than one-half went to the government treasury ; the 
rest — more than half — was handed over to the various favored 
sugar producers. Let us imagine the United States government 
to present an account, rendering to its wards, the sugar con- 
sumers, a statement of what had become of the sums collected 
from them. The government would properly enter on the debit 
side the total which it had taken from the consumers, on the 
credit side an enumeration of the various ways in which it had 
distributed the total. The fiscal year 1909-19 10 may be taken 
as representative. For that year the account would stand thus : 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IN ACCOUNT WITH SUGAR 
CONSUMERS, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1909-1910 







Paid over to 


Dr. 


Cr. 




U. S. Treasury 


Sugar products 






Millions of 


Millions of 






dollars 


dollars 


Taxes col- 


On 300 mill. lb. of full-duty sugar 


#5-3 • 




lected on 


On 3500 mill. lb. of Cuban sugar 


45-6 


$5-2 


7400 mill. 


On 1 100 mill. lb. of Hawaiian sugar 




16.6 


lb. of sugar 


On 570 mill. lb. of Porto Rico sugar 




8.5 


at i£<£ 


On 175 mill. lb. of Philippine sugar 




2.6 


V 


On 7 50 mill. lb. of domestic cane sugar 




II. 2 


\. 


On 1025 mill. lb. of domestic beet sugar 




154 


>\ 




$50.9 


159-5 


$111.0 




$110.4 



BEET SUGAR 935 

It appears that in 1909-19 10 the government collected 
1 1 1 millions of dollars from the sugar consumers. It put about 
50 millions into its own treasury, using that sum for meeting 
public expenses ; and handed over about 60 millions to the vari- 
ous sugar producers. The proportion going to the sugar producers 
tended to grow greater during the whole of our period — from 
the close of the Civil War until 191 3. During the early years of 
the period, the sugar duty had been mainly a revenue tax. By 
its close, the characteristic features of a protective duty had be- 
come dominant ; the treasury received less in revenue than the 
favored producers secured in largess or bounty. 

The sum paid over to the sugar producers would be described 
by some free traders as a net bonus, or tribute, to the protected 
persons ; robbing Peter to pay Paul. By other free traders it 
would be described as so much . net loss to the country ; not a 
source of extra gains to Paul, but merely an inducement for 
engaging in an industry in which the producer made no improper 
gains, while the consumer paid more than a proper price. The 
truth would seem to be midway. Since the production of raw 
sugar has the characteristics of an extractive or raw-product 
industry, different producers were in different circumstances. 
Some were just able to hold their own even with the higher 
price caused by the duty; they were at the margin, and made 
no unusual profits. Such would seem to have been the case 
with many of the Louisiana planters, perhaps most of them ; 
with many beet-sugar growers ; with some planters in Hawaii 
and Porto Rico. Others were in the fortunate position of pro- 
ducing cheaply and yet selling at the duty-raised price ; they 
secured unusual gains, a producer's surplus or economic rent. 
Such was probably the case with the majority of the Hawaiian 
planters, with some beet-sugar growers, doubtless with other 
sugar producers also. As regards this second class, the sugar 
duty brought not a net loss to the community, but a transfer 
from some to others ; Peter really was robbed to pay Paul. How 
the total charge was divided between the two, it would seem 
quite impossible to say. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 

By Jesse E. Pope 

(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXVIII, p. 701, 
August, 1 91 4) 

[Footnotes omitted from this reprint. The reader is referred to the original 
article. — Ed.] 

THE purpose of this article is to inquire into conditions of 
agricultural indebtedness in the United States, to indicate 
the credit facilities of the American farmer and to consider the 
plans suggested for their improvement. 

I. EXISTING CONDITIONS 

The farmer may need credit for : 

1. Land acquisition, through purchase or inheritance. 

2. Permanent improvements, such as buildings, fences, drains. 

3. Equipment, including machinery, implements, work animals. 

4. Working capital, including expenditures for fertilizer, seed, 
fodder, fuel, labor. 

Credit for land and improvements is usually termed ownership 
credit ; and since it is granted for a comparatively long time on 
mortgage security, it is referred to as mortgage or long-term 
credit. Working credit, on the other hand, since it is granted 
for a comparatively short time, and since the personal factor is 
the chief element in its security, is referred to as personal or 
short-term credit. Equipment credit, though more like improve- 
ment than like working credit when viewed from the standpoint 
of production, must be classed, on account of its comparatively 
short term and the importance of the personal element in its 
security, as short-term or personal credit. 

936 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 937 

It may be broadly stated that previous to the last quarter of 
the nineteenth century American farmers felt little need of credit. 
They had been given their land by the Government or had bought 
it at comparatively low prices. Since agriculture was extensive, 
expenditures for improvement and equipment were inconsiderable. 
The virgin soil needed no fertilization, and credit was seldom 
required except for family supplies during the crop-growing period. 

The western movement, which began to assume large propor- 
tions about the middle of the nineteenth century, resulted in the 
opening of vast areas of fertile land adapted to grain growing 
and of free grazing land on which live stock could be raised at 
low cost. This resulted in a tremendous surplus of agricultural 
products, which, owing to the development of railroad and ocean 
transportation, was thrown on the markets of the world, bringing 
prosperity to the farmers of America and ruin to those of Europe. 

Partly as a result of this overwhelming flood of production 
and partly on account of the speculation and inflation which fol- 
lowed the Civil War, a great increase in land values took place. 
This gave farmers a broader basis for borrowing, and they took 
advantage of it to make improvements and to add more land to 
their farms. Tempted by the high rates of interest and deceived 
by the reported endless wealth of the new West, eastern and Euro- 
pean capitalists made loans altogether too freely and often on 
the security of land practically worthless or located in regions of 
uncertain crops. The upward movement culminated in the early 
nineties ; grain farming reached its climax, and overproduction 
brought the inevitable fall of prices and of land values. 

Prices of farm products reached their lowest point about 1896, 
but land values continued to fall until 1900. The low prices 
discouraged production, and the increase in cereal production 
between 1890 and 1900 was only 26 per cent, whereas there 
had been an increase of 30.4 per cent during the preceding 
decade. In many of the great agricultural states soil fertility had 
begun to decline and the increase in production which did take 
place was due not so much to more intensive or better farming 
as to the taking up of new lands west of the Missouri. 



938 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Mortgage Indebtedness 

Farmers now began to feel the burden of their great mortgage 
indebtedness, which had grown enormously during the preceding 
decade and which had been incurred largely for unproductive 
purposes. Many could not pay their interest, and as it often 
happened that the selling price was less than the amount of the 
mortgage, foreclosures were common. This collapse caused wide- 
spread discontent among the farmers, and as a consequence many 
investigations into conditions of rural indebtedness were instituted. 

The first attempt to secure information regarding the amount 
of mortgage indebtedness for the entire United States was made 
by the census of 1890. Two independent inquiries were made 
at this time. In one case experts were sent to secure the infor- 
mation from the records of certain typical counties, and on the 
basis of these data the real-estate mortgage indebtedness both 
urban and rural was estimated for the entire country. In the 
second case an inquiry was included in the population schedule 
concerning the mortgage indebtedness of owned farm homes. The 
data obtained in this latter inquiry is made use of in this study. 

While the census of 1900 secured data for the number of 
farm homes mortgaged, no inquiry was made as to the amount 
of indebtedness. The census of 19 10 secured, on the regular 
agricultural schedule, information regarding the mortgage in- 
debtedness on farms operated by their owners, but the data was 
published only for owners renting no additional land. Moreover, 
complete reports were secured for only 75 per cent of such 
farms, the mortgage indebtedness of which is reported to be 
$1,726,172,851. The reported indebtedness in 1890 on mort- 
gaged farm homes was $1,085,995,960. This amount is not 
comparable to that reported for 19 10, since the 1890 statistics 
include data for owners renting additional land and estimates for 
the defective reports. In order to make these figures comparable, 
estimates have been made for 19 10 for those owners renting 
additional acres and for those not reporting. On the assumption 
that conditions of mortgage indebtedness for such owners are the 
same as those for which data was published, the total amount of 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 939 

mortgage indebtedness for all owners in 19 10, that is, for all 
owned farm homes, is estimated to be $2,293,000,000. 

On the assumption that the average mortgage indebtedness on 
farms operated by tenants is slightly below that for those oper- 
ated by owners, the mortgage indebtedness on such farms is 
estimated to be $500,000,000, making a total mortgage indebted- 
ness on all farms of $2,793,000,000. In the discussion which 
follows, the mortgage indebtedness on tenant farms is not in- 
cluded. On the basis of the estimated debt of $1,085,995,960, 
as reported by the census of 1890 on owned farm homes, and 
the estimated indebtedness for similar homes in 19 10, amounting 
to $1,726,172,851, the increase in the mortgage debt for the 
twenty years from 1890 to 1910 is iii.i per cent. 

The question naturally arises, For what purpose was this huge 
additional debt incurred ? The census did not inquire into the 
subject, but George K. Holmes estimates that about 64.4 per 
cent of the total debt in 1890 grew out of ownership, either 
through purchase or through inheritance ; and he thinks that 
probably this statement is equally applicable to the year 19 10. 
When land values increase, ownership becomes more difficult, 
and the increase of mortgage indebtedness is inevitable. During 
the period 1890— 19 10 the value of land and its improvements 
for the country as a whole increased 100 per cent, and this, 
coupled with frequency of land transfers, resulted in a great 
increase of mortgage indebtedness. 

The farmer has also made heavy expenditures to raise his 
standard of living and has spent large sums on improvements 
and equipment and in working capital. The value of buildings, 
apart from that of the land, was not given by the census of 
1890, but was given in 1900 and 19 10, and comparison shows 
an increase of 77.8 per cent. During the same decade value of 
implements and machinery increased 68.7 per cent, while the 
expenditure for labor increased 82.3 per cent, and that for fer- 
tilizer, 115 per cent. These increased expenditures for equip- 
ment and operation are the result of the normal development 
of agriculture, since they arise out of a growing necessity for 
greater intensity of cultivation. Animals are of better quality 



940 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and require better housing. More thorough cultivation calls for 
a larger expenditure for labor or increased employment of ma- 
chinery. Declining soil fertility may force the farmer to resort 
to artificial fertilizer. It is possible that these added items of 
expense may not be reflected in increased production and must, 
therefore, be wholly met out of an increase in prices. But should 
such an increase in prices not take place, the additional expendi- 
tures would have to be met out of the farmer's capital, which 
must ultimately increase his mortgage indebtedness. That this 
is frequently the case the history of agriculture affords abundant 
evidence. A recent writer, speaking of conditions in a certain 
locality, says the demand for mortgage credit exceeds the supply, 
owing to the transformation of short-term into long-term loans. 
Trosien remarks that personal debts tend to become mortgage 
debts, while second mortgages often arise from the capitalization 
of unpaid interest on the first. Consolidation of past debts is 
given as the greatest cause of mortgage indebtedness in Sas- 
katchewan. In the United States, undoubtedly, no inconsiderable 
part of the indebtedness incurred through these expenditures has 
been converted into mortgages ; and this, therefore, may be con- 
sidered as one of the causes of the increase of mortgage indebt- 
edness. But the fact should not be lost sight of that during the 
period under consideration there has been an enormous rise of 
prices, which has not been taken advantage of to reduce mortgage 
indebtedness or prevent its increase or to stimulate production. 
After due allowance has been made for the growing difficulties 
in the way of declining soil fertility and the like, the fact remains 
that there has been an enormous expenditure which should be 
reflected in increased production ; but no such reflection can be 
discovered. Enormous sums have been spent for buildings, im- 
plements, machinery, labor and fertilizers, and yet there has been 
no appreciable increase in the average yield of staple crops ; and 
though the census is probably mistaken in reporting so slight an 
increase in the volume of dairy products, owing undoubtedly to 
overestimation in 1900, if due allowance is made for this fact it is 
probably true that the increase in dairy products is not commen- 
surate with the increase in population and farm expenditures. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 941 

The farmers of the South depend much more on personal 
credit than do those of the North. Forty-three per cent of the 
farms in the North Central states are mortgaged, while in the 
South but 23.1 per cent are mortgaged. In Iowa 51.8 per cent 
are mortgaged ; and in Alabama 26.1 per cent. The reasons for 
this difference are various. Among them may be mentioned the 
fact that much of the land in the South is held in large tracts, 
which are usually broken up into small farms under tenant culti- 
vation. And while the owners of such tracts may often secure 
money at favorable rates, this system of farming does not adapt 
itself to large mortgage loaning. In the case of the southern 
owner who himself tills the farm, the system of agriculture is 
such that the security offered is not attractive to outside capital. 
Agricultural practices are not standardized ; loans are small ; the 
general prejudice of the owner against a mortgage, the prevailing 
sentiment that a mortgage on the farm greatly impairs the mort- 
gagor's personal credit, large homestead exemptions and lack of 
adequate laws to protect the investor have retarded mortgage loans 
in the South, while low land values and infrequent transfers have 
also been important factors in keeping down mortgage indebted- 
ness. As a result permanent improvements, which must be made 
largely from mortgage loans, have not been made. But a tremen- 
dous change in this regard has been going on in the South dur- 
ing the past twenty years, and particularly during the last decade. 
While homestead exemptions and laws protecting credit have 
undergone little change, ownership has greatly increased among 
both white and colored farmers. Agricultural conditions have be- 
come more stable ; land values have risen and are much less 
speculative than in the North ; improvement expenditures show 
a marked increase, and while the percentage of farms mortgaged 
and the absolute indebtedness are low in the South as compared 
with the North, the per cent of increase in mortgage indebtedness 
in the former section has been very much greater. For example, 
the increase of mortgage indebtedness for the North Central 
states was 109.5 per cent, while the increase for the South Cen- 
tral was 484.9 per cent. For Iowa, which has the heaviest mort- 
gage indebtedness of all the northern states, the increase was 



942 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

165 per cent, while for Alabama it was 621.4 P er cent. Although 
the rates on mortgage loans are much higher in the South than 
in the better developed agricultural regions of the North, the bur- 
den of mortgage indebtedness is much lighter in the South. In 
much of the South agricultural conditions to-day are very similar, 
as regards the return on investment, to those which prevailed in 
the great Middle West a generation ago. High interest rates are 
offset by large profits ; the short term of the loan, which is from 
three to five years, is usually sufficient time for the farmer to pay 
off his debt if he is so inclined. 

Beyond the expenditure necessary to maintain the former level 
of production, which may eventually mean an increase in mort- 
gage indebtedness, any further increase in such indebtedness 
should indicate expansion ; that is, an increase in production. In 
Germany, for example, while mortgage indebtedness has greatly 
increased during the last quarter of the century, there has also 
been an enormous expansion in agriculture. Helfferich shows that 
the yield of wheat, rye, oats, barley, potatoes and hay increased 
7 7. 7 per cent during this period, while the acreage increased 
87.7 per cent. Similar figures might be given for Denmark. In 
the United States, however, the increased mortgage indebtedness 
is not reflected in increased production. Agricultural prosperity 
has been almost solely due to an increase in prices. 

Some writers maintain that this is not a serious matter, since, 
owing to the rise of land values, the farmer now has, on an 
average, despite his heavier mortgage indebtedness, a greater 
equity than before, shown by the fact that in 1890 the mortgage 
debt on farms operated by owners was 35.5 per cent of their 
value, while in 19 10 it was but 26.1 per cent. But the argument 
seems to the writer fallacious. The real measure of the prosperity 
of the farmers as a class is not the amount of their equity but 
the net return on their investment. Although an increased equity, 
not accompanied by a corresponding increase in the net return 
on investment, is of course a gain to the farmer who wishes to 
sell, it is of no material advantage to the one who wishes to hold 
his farm and whose income is sufficient for his needs ; while a 
new owner, whether by purchase or by inheritance, is actually 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 943 

worse off, despite his increased equity, than if the land had not 
increased in value, because of his larger interest payments and 
the fact that the mere acquisition of the land has depleted his 
working funds. To quote from the report of a recent investiga- 
tion, " where land values are high, the amount of money invested 
in working capital becomes proportionately small." This refers 
to conditions in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. And Trosien states 
that the higher the price of land rises, the more difficult does it 
become to secure capital for its proper working. 

The significance of equity becomes clearer if farming is viewed 
as a business which is successful only if it yields a fair return on 
the investment and pays the farmer fair wages of management. 
That this is not the case in our most advanced agricultural re- 
gions has been clearly brought out by the report of the above- 
mentioned investigation of farming conditions in Indiana, Illinois 
and Iowa. Two hundred and forty-seven rented farms were in- 
vestigated, with the result that the average return on their invest- 
ment to the landlords in these states is shown to be 3.5 per cent, 
3.6 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively. In the case of 273 
farm owners who tilled their farms, the average labor income left 
after the deduction of 5 per cent interest on the capital was $408. 
" One owner out of every three paid for the privilege of working 
his farm, that is, after deducting 5 per cent interest on his in- 
vestment he failed to make a plus labor income." And the farm 
owners, with an average investment of over twelve times that of 
the farm tenants, made less than half as much labor income. 
The bulletin concludes that the farmers of these regions who are 
owners are living on the earnings of their investment and not on 
the real profits of the farm. 

It is not at all certain that this increased equity is stable. It is 
evident that part of the increase has resulted from land specu- 
lation ; and since production has remained about stationary, the 
rest must be credited to the rise in prices of farm products. 
These prices are now so high that any further rise must either 
curtail consumption or stimulate importation, and is therefore 
improbable. Indeed it is doubtful whether the present high 
prices will continue even if there is no interruption of general 



944 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

prosperity. For in normal times a change of agricultural prices is 
always imminent, and with prices at their present high level any 
change would probably be a decline. This might easily cause a 
diminution of the farmer's income which would result in a fall 
of land values sufficient to wipe out much of the increase in his 
equity and to add still further to the burden of his mortgage debt. 
The writer is not of the opinion that the average mortgage 
indebtedness of the American farmer is excessive. In a country 
so rich agriculturally, a mortgage debt of $2,793,000,000 is no 
cause for alarm ; and in general, an increase of the agricultural 
indebtedness of a country is usually a sign of prosperity. But 
it is a sign of prosperity only if the increase of land values on 
which the additional mortgage debt is based has been caused, not 
by speculation or by an abnormal rise in the prices of products, 
but by an actual increase in the volume of production. It is essen- 
tial not only to the welfare of society in general but also to the 
security of the farmer himself that any increase in the returns 
from agriculture shall have resulted mainly from an increase of 
production rather than from high prices. 

Sources of Mortgage Credit 

The principal sources of mortgage credit are : (1) the indi- 
vidual lender ; (2) the life-insurance company ; (3) the bank ; 
(4) the state; (5) the mortgage company; (6) the building and 
loan association. These will be considered in the order stated. 

(1) In most communities there are individuals willing to loan 
to their neighbors, because through personal supervision they can 
minimize risks which exclude outside lenders, and because by 
loaning directly they avoid paying the middleman's commission. 
This form of credit offers certain advantages to the borrower, 
but it lends itself to abuse. It plays an important role in this 
country, but no statistics concerning it are available. 

(2) Perhaps the most important source of farm mortgage loans 
is the insurance company. It has been recently estimated that 
172 of the leading life insurance companies have outstanding 
rural loans to the amount of $572,000,000, or about one-fifth of 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 945 

the entire agricultural mortgage indebtedness. They operate in 
all parts of the country where agricultural conditions are suffici- 
ently well established and where land values are high enough to 
furnish adequate security for a fairly large loan. Great caution is 
exercised and the inclusion of a locality in the territory of one 
of these companies is evidence of that locality's prosperity and 
good standing. But even in good sections, loans on small farms 
are not favored. The companies not infrequently make their 
investments through well-established mortgage companies, but 
they usually act through local agents thoroughly acquainted with 
the conditions in their districts. These agents make the apprais- 
als and exercise general supervision over the loans. The com- 
pany, however, employs its own attorney and inspectors, who pass 
final judgment on the valuations, titles and papers submitted by 
the agents. 

Each year sees an increase in the investments of life insurance 
companies in farm loans. This is due to the improvement of the 
average risk, to growing confidence in the security of such loans 
and to the comparatively high rate of interest which they yield. 

(3) In general, it is not the function of a bank to make mort- 
gage loans. Not until the passage of the Federal Reserve Act 
of 191 3 were national banks permitted to loan on real estate, 
though it has been their common practice to take real-estate 
mortgages as added security for personal loans. Section 24 of 
the Federal Reserve Act provides that any national bank not 
situated in a Central Reserve city may make loans on improved 
farm land, not to exceed 50 per cent of the actual value of the 
property offered as security and for a period not exceeding five 
years. The bank may make such loans in an aggregate sum equal 
to 25 per cent of its capital and surplus, and to 33-i per cent of 
its time deposits. What is likely to be the result of the new 
policy thus inaugurated ? 

For years there has been agitation both within and without 
the ranks of the national banks for the adoption of this policy ; 
and now that it has finally been adopted, it is heralded as a great 
boon to agriculture. In a recent statement from the Treasury 
Department (reported in the daily papers of June nineteenth) 



946 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

attention was called to the fact that at the present time 
$500,000,000 is available for farm-mortgage loans. The writer, 
however, does not share the belief that the making of real- 
estate loans by national banks is in accordance with the prin- 
ciples of sound banking, and even if it were, he does not 
believe that such loaning would prove profitable to the banks 
or convenient for the farmers. 

A bank's primary function is to make possible the employ- 
ment of capital temporarily out of use. This it does by estab- 
lishing a reservoir of liquid funds known as deposits. It should 
not act as a primary agent of investment, even to the extent 
involved in making five-year mortgage loans. The resources of a 
bank should be kept so liquid that they will be immediately avail- 
able in times of stress. The time deposits of even the country 
national bank do not bear the same relation to the bank as the 
savings deposits bear to the industrial savings bank. The restric- 
tion of the amount to be loaned to 33I per cent of the time 
deposits and of the term to five years is an admission of this 
fact. Yet it is difficult to see why this five-year restriction was 
made, since from the standpoint of a bank a five-year loan is no 
more liquid than a ten-year loan. 

Further, in meeting the demands of farmers for personal loans, 
the bulk of which run for a period of from six months to a year 
and are therefore not short-time loans in a strict sense, national 
banks are subjected to as great a strain as they should be called 
upon to bear. 

The banks are not likely to find it profitable to make the per- 
mitted mortgage loans, since the rate could not be higher than 
that on commercial loans ; while farmers can secure loans locally 
from individuals or from outside sources at lower rates. In 
Illinois or Minnesota, for example, farmers to whom a national, 
bank would care to loan on mortgage can secure loans on their 
farms at a rate below that which the bank charges on their per- 
sonal loans and even lower than that paid the bank by the local 
merchant. Even if it be granted that under certain conditions it' 
would be to the bank's advantage to make the mortgage loans, 
a five-year term would be too short if the loan was required for 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 947 

purchase. It is to be borne in mind, also, that a farmer who 
would have to resort to mortgaging for improvements or equip- 
ment would already have a mortgage on his farm and could 
therefore not offer acceptable security to a national bank. 

The conclusion is inevitable that the newly authorized loans 
cannot become important. This is overwhelmingly borne out 
by the experience of our state banks and by that of European 
banks. It is interesting to note in this connection that the 
Scotch banks, which have been wonderfully successful in meet- 
ing the demands of agriculture, do not, if they can avoid it, 
accept real estate as security. One cannot but suspect that a 
great deal of the clamor for the law permitting national banks 
to make mortgage loans has been raised by men ignorant of 
banking principles, eager to propitiate those who regard the 
national banks as oppressors, or by bankers who have permitted 
their judgment to become warped. 

State banks are not restrained by law from making mortgage 
loans, and such loans, while not large for the individual bank, in 
the aggregate have reached a very large sum. The Comptroller's 
report for 19 14 gives this amount as $258,398,352.95. Indi- 
rectly, by acting as agents of outside investors, both national and 
state banks have made enormous sums of capital available to 
farmers. Unlike these banks, trust companies and savings banks 
have in trust funds which may safely be loaned on mortgage. 
But while the trust company has performed a very important 
service in the matter of making agricultural loans, savings banks, 
which are largely confined to our industrial centers, have found 
urban loaning more profitable. 

(4) Some states loan to farmers from the permanent school 
fund. Up to the present time this has but slightly influenced 
the farm-mortgage situation, but recent agitation favors a greater 
liberality in this practice. Authorities have rightly felt, however, 
that these funds should not be loaned without adequate security, 
and farmers who can offer such security would have no trouble 
in obtaining loans elsewhere. 

(5) During the last quarter of the nineteenth century numer- 
ous mortgage companies were organized which obtained their 



948 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

funds through the sale of debenture bonds. Through unscru- 
pulous management and lack of public supervision many of these 
companies were led into careless and excessive loaning which 
involved them and their gullible investors in the collapse of the 
early '90s. Some, however, were conservatively managed and 
are still in existence, and at present mortgage companies are 
playing an important role in the making of farm loans, although 
the issue of debenture bonds has been practically given up. 

There are two classes of mortgage companies. The first class 
are really mortgage brokers. They are without resources and are 
therefore not in a position to assume financial responsibility. 
They receive the farmer's application, appraise his property, draw 
up the papers and, on finding a purchaser of the mortgage, pay 
over the sum to the farmer. As agents, they collect the interest 
and generally supervise the loan. The objections to such com- 
panies are that the farmer must wait for his loan until a pur- 
chaser can be found, and that in case of defaulted interest or of 
foreclosure the inconvenience falls on the investor. 

The second class of mortgage companies occupy the position 
of underwriters. On the farmer's application the company makes 
an appraisal of his farm and if willing to grant the loan, does 
this, after the necessary preliminaries, in its own name and from 
its own resources. It then sells the mortgage to the investor and 
endorses it to him. But if the loan is too large to be made by 
a single investor, the company itself retains the mortgage and 
sells serial bonds issued against it. The company guarantees the 
title, collects the interest and advances it in case of delay, and 
generally supervises the loan. It keeps the investor's money 
constantly employed by reinvestment in new mortgages as the 
old ones become due. 

(6) The building and loaning associations, which are now found 
in practically all parts of the country and which have rendered 
great service to home buyers in our smaller cities and towns, 
until very recently took mortgages on urban property only ; but 
in the older parts of the country they are now attempting to 
extend their activities to the country districts, and in some locali- 
ties their loans to farmers have begun to assume considerable 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 949 

proportions. For example, the Ohio Building and Loan Associa- 
tions have outstanding at the present time five thousand loans, 
amounting to over $11,000,000. The loans run from one to six- 
teen years. The associations have shown themselves capable of 
adaptation to the peculiar needs of farmers, and there is every 
reason to believe that they will become a fruitful source of 
farm loans. 

In a country so extensive and of such widely varying condi- 
tions it is impossible to determine the average rate the farmer 
is paying. On the basis of similarity in mortgage conditions 
the country may be divided into three regions — the older sec- 
tions of the North Atlantic and Middle West, the South, and 
the newer sections of the West and Northwest. But it should 
be borne in mind that even within these regions rates vary 
greatly between communities, and even between farmers of the 
same community. 

In the most favored sections of the North the rate is about 
5.5 per cent plus a 2 per cent commission distributed over five 
years, which makes the cost of the loan about 5.9 per cent. The 
commission covers all expenses save the registration fee. In the 
less-favored sections the rate is i per cent to | per cent higher, 
that is, it varies from about 6.4 per cent to about 6.65 per cent. 
The North Atlantic and Middle West bear about 60 per cent of 
the entire farm-mortgage indebtedness of the country. 

In the South the majority of the borrowers pay 6.5 per cent 
plus a 2 per cent annual commission, or 8.5 per cent. This sec- 
tion bears about 20 per cent of the total mortgage indebtedness 
of the country. 

In the West and Northwest the rate is about the same as in 
the South. This section bears about 20 per cent of the mortgage 
debt of the country. 

But there are numerous exceptions to these statements of rates. 
Many farmers are able to borrow money at from 4 to 5 per cent, 
while in the South and in the newer sections of the United 
States loans not infrequently pay 10 per cent interest, with the 
addition of a 3 to 5 per cent annual commission. 



950 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Rates may also be approximately estimated from the yield of 
mortgage loans to investors. The usual rate offered to investors 
by mortgage companies making loans in the Northwest is 6 per 
cent, though the rate varies, according to the risk, from 5.5 per 
cent to 7 per cent. In the South the usual rate is 7 per cent, 
though some loans are made at 6 per cent. The commissions 
charged by the companies vary, according to risk and competition, 
from 1 per cent to 3 per cent. 

The president of a mortgage company located in the extreme 
Northwest states that in order to cover expenses and make ade- 
quate profits the mortgage company must have an annual margin 
of at least 1.5 per cent above the rate quoted to the investor. In 
other words, in that region the farmers who are more favorably 
situated pay from 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent. The annual margin 
on the less desirable loans is probably from 2 per cent to 3 per 
cent, and the interest is from 8 per cent to 9.5 per cent. The 
president of a company located in the Middle West states that its 
mortgages net the investor from 5.5 per cent to 6 per cent, that 
the cost of making the loan is ^ per cent and that the additional 
charge for profit makes the cost to the farmer from 7 per cent to 
7.5 per cent. These figures are significant in connection with 
the fact that the company has outstanding mortgages to the 
amount of $15,000,000, and that it will not do business in a 
community which does not annually furnish mortgage paper 
amounting to $200,000. 

The local middleman plays an important part in mortgage 
loaning in the United States. While the better-organized mort- 
gage companies urge the farmer to deal directly with them, he 
nevertheless often pays a commission to a third party for telling 
him where he may secure a loan, and in many parts of the 
country there are middlemen who perform no other function. In 
certain sections, however, the isolated position of the farmer, his 
ignorance of business, his lack of system and his dependence on 
outside capital make a middleman who is familiar with him and his 
affairs a necessity. So varied are the conditions under which such 
a middleman acts that it is practically impossible to generalize as 
to the cost of his services ; but in most cases it is not exorbitant. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 951 

The period of a mortgage loan is an important element in 
determining its cost. In the United States, as a whole, the usual 
period is five years, but in the South small loans are often made 
for three years and in the best regions of the North some loans 
are made for ten. In the early history of mortgage loaning, 
loans were small in proportion to the productivity of the land, 
and there was some economic justification for the three- or five- 
year term, since a loan could often be paid off within that time ; 
but this is no longer the case for a large part of the country, 
though it still holds true in the South and the newer sections of 
the West. With so short a term frequent renewals are neces- 
sary, and the expense and uncertainty involved impose a needless 
burden on the borrower. The usual excuse for the short term is 
that, since the mortgage contains no clause providing for fore- 
closure in the case of depreciation or for partial payments, the 
short term is the lender's only means of self-defense. But this 
is a j)oor argument, since the farmer would doubtless consent to 
the inclusion of such a clause if he could thereby secure a longer 
term with the privilege of making partial payments. The real 
reason for short periods is to be found in the desire of the in- 
vestor or his agent for commissions on renewals. In partial exten- 
uation it may be noted that the initial cost of making a loan is 
often so great that if the hope of future profits from renewals were 
to be eliminated, initial commissions would have to be made larger. 

Another element of the cost of the mortgage loan is the ex- 
pense of registration, of searching and perfecting titles, of ab- 
stracting and so forth. This is sometimes made an extra charge. 
The registration fee, which in many states is merely nominal, is 
always paid by the borrower. In some states, however, its amount 
depends on the length of the document and therefore bears no 
relation to the amount of the loan. Often it is a grievous burden 
on the small borrower. Some states have introduced the Torrens 
system of title registration, thereby reducing the expense to a 
minimum. In other states abstract companies have done much 
to reduce these costs. In the South, however, such companies 
are not common, and since the records must be searched from 
the beginning for each new mortgage, the cost is high. 



952 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

Personal Indebtedness 

There has been no general investigation into the amount of 
personal indebtedness of the American farmer. Holmes estimates 
the total rural indebtedness to be $5,000,000,000, of which 
$2,795,000,000 is real-estate credit and the rest is personal credit 
distributed as follows: chattel mortgages, $700,000,000; liens 
on crops other than cotton, $450,000,000; cotton crop liens, 
$390,000,000; unsecured debts to local merchants, $250,000,000; 
and other unsecured debts, $410,000,000. 

With regard to its source personal credit may be classified as : 
(a) merchant's credit, including store credit, dealer's credit and 
factor's credit ; (b) bank credit. 

The practice among storekeepers of selling to farmers goods 
to be paid for after the harvest is almost as universal as agricul- 
ture itself. It is less prevalent in regions of diversified farming, 
where the farmer, from the sale of eggs, poultry, milk, etc., has 
a weekly income available for ordinary household expenses. But 
where this is not the case, store credit flourishes even if banking 
facilities are good. This is due partly to the convenience of the 
system, partly to the failure of farmers to realize that in paying 
the "credit prices" of the storekeeper they are paying him a rate 
of interest higher than they would have to pay the bank and 
partly to the fact that the storekeeper can give credit to farmers 
who would be unable to obtain it from the bank. The amount 
of this ordinary store credit cannot be estimated ; although on 
the whole it has declined in this country, it is still enormous. 

There exists, however, in the South, a far more important form 
of store credit. The local merchant not only gives credit for the 
ordinary family supplies but in reality finances the growing crop 
— contracting to make a definite loan to be taken in commodities. 
If the farmer is an owner or a responsible tenant, the merchant 
makes the loan directly and may take a mortgage on the crop. 
He may even prescribe the kind of crop to be grown, lay down 
general rules for its cultivation, supervise it in every stage of its 
growth and insist on its sale to him when harvested. But other- 
wise the loan is made through the landlord, who assumes the 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 953 

responsibility of payment. This form of credit is due to special 
economic and social conditions — the constant shifting of the rural 
population and the fact that a large part of this population are of 
a race still in its economic infancy — rather than to any lack of 
banking facilities. For the majority of such farmers cash credit 
is out of the question, since they would not use it for making 
their crop but would squander it. A bank, however, often lends 
the merchant the money for buying the supplies to be advanced 
to the farmer. As an inevitable result of the expense and risk 
of granting this form of store credit, its cost is high, and the 
system undoubtedly lends itself to grave abuses. With the de- 
velopment of economic sense it is declining ; but without such 
credit independent farming would have been impossible for a 
large part of the southern farmers. 

The substitution of expensive machinery for labor is a marked 
characteristic of American agriculture, and a large part of this ma- 
chinery is supplied on credit by the manufacturer, who takes the 
dealer's or the farmer's notes and in case of need discounts them, 
sometimes at the farmer's own bank but more often at some met- 
ropolitan bank. This form of credit, known as dealer's credit, flour- 
ishes even in regions where farming is well established and credit 
highly organized. There has been much discussion as to the cause 
of this condition, and it is urged that the farmer pays more for this 
credit than he would for bank credit and that the manufacturer is 
often embarrassed for lack of funds to carry on the business. But 
there are certain good reasons for the existence of the system. 

First, such credit is easily obtained. The dealer knows that 
the farmer's credit is good and that he can add enough to the 
price to make up for bad debts. Knowing that the farmer 
will buy more on credit, he does not encourage cash payment. 
A second reason is that the manufacturer can give credit for 
a longer period than can the bank and that the security, which 
consists largely of the machine itself, is more acceptable to him 
than to the bank. Finally, the farmer often prefers to save his 
bank credit for other purposes. 

In the past grave abuses have grown out of this form of credit. 
Farmers have been led into extravagant purchase of machinery 



954 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

and have involved themselves and the manufacturers in ruin. 
But though there is still room for improvement, the past ten years 
have witnessed a revolution. While still willing to sell on time, 
manufacturers have put their business on a higher plane. Their 
rates of interest are the same as those of the local bank, and they 
exercise greater care than formerly in granting credit and are 
able to sell on time at practically cash prices. 

In factor's credit the loan is made not in supplies but in cash, 
though the purpose for which it is to be used is rigidly prescribed. 
In the South the cotton factor advances the farmer the money 
for financing his crop, and the farmer contracts to plant a certain 
number of acres of a certain crop, cotton for example, and to 
sell his crop to the factor. In the North a live stock commission 
firm advances money to the farmer for the purchase of live stock, 
which he contracts to sell through the firm. This live stock is 
usually lean cattle, but often it is breeding stock, and in this case 
the debt may extend over a number of years and be gradually 
paid off with the returns from the stock or herd. Such credit is 
needed on account of the scarcity of local capital and *because 
in some cases the loan is of such a nature that the bank cannot 
make it. Owing to the factor's special knowledge of the purpose 
for which the loan is made and his ability to watch its applica- 
tion, he can make the loan at less risk and at a lower rate than 
the bank. 

The extent to which bank credit is used by American farmers 
varies widely according to the economic development of the com- 
munity. Where agricultural methods are well established and 
climatic conditions are such as to preclude the probability of crop 
failure the farmer enjoys practically the same credit advantages 
as the merchant. This is due to the peculiarly favorable condi- 
tions of American agriculture. Farms are comparatively large, 
and therefore the loans are of sufficient size to make it worth 
while for the banks to grant the accommodation. The farmers 
and the bankers belong to the same social class ; indeed, the 
bank is not uncommonly owned and operated by the farmers 
themselves. Finally, our system of free banking has permitted 
the establishment of banks wherever they could be made to pay. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 955 

Conditions in Cass County, Iowa, may be taken as fairly 
typical of the banking situation in the better agricultural sections. 
The county has 17 banks with a total capital of $690,000, total 
deposits of $3,563,000 and loans aggregating $3,345,000. These 
banks are located in eight towns, of which the largest, with a 
population of 4560, has five banks. Five towns with popula- 
tions of 1 1 18, 949, 603, 552 and 490, respectively, have each 
two banks, and two towns with populations of 266 and 239 
have one bank each. All the towns depend on agriculture for 
their prosperity, and the owners and patrons of the banks are 
mainly farmers. 

Holmes estimates that in 102 counties of Illinois 921 banks 
afford two-thirds of all the personal credit obtained by farmers 
and that in Vermont the farmers obtain 70 per cent of their 
credit from the banks, while in the southern states of Virginia, 
Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi they get from two-fifths to 
three-fifths of their credit from the banks. For the country as a 
whole, outside the South, he estimates that from one-half to 
seven-tenths of the credit to farmers comes from the banks. 

Closely associated with the question of the amount of bank 
credit to farmers is that of its cost. Contrary to a common 
opinion, banks are no respecters of persons, and if the farmer 
pays more for his credit than other classes of producers, it is be- 
cause it is more expensive to loan to him. As a rule this is the 
case. In the first place the credit required by the farmer is very 
different from that required by the merchant. The term is longer, 
renewals are more frequent and partial payments are unusual. 
While the moral risk is good, payments are slow, supervision is 
more difficult and the average size of the loan is smaller. 
Although the farmer's current-account deposits have shown a 
decided increase in the last twenty years, they are not of 
sufficient importance to warrant the bank in loaning to him 
against his balance. 

Since the average farmer receives his income in lump sums and 
at infrequent intervals, he makes savings deposits rather than 
current-account deposits. The merchant, on the contrary, receives 
his income in daily increments, which he immediately puts at the 



956 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

disposal of the banks through current-account deposits. Since, 
therefore, as the banker would say, the merchant is borrowing 
his own money, he is entitled to a somewhat lower rate than the 
farmer. In a community mainly agricultural the large amount of 
interest paid on time deposits imposes a heavy burden on the 
banks. In the South and in the newer states of the West, time 
deposits usually bring 5 per cent and often 6 per cent interest, 
and as long as such rates must be paid to attract and hold free 
capital in the community, just so long must the bank's borrowers 
feel the burden of high interest rates. Finally, since the credit 
demands of the farmer are not evenly distributed throughout the 
year, the bank often has idle money which it must invest in 
short-term commercial paper at a rate lower than that charged 
the farmer for his loan. This is not, however, as is often stated, 
discrimination against the farmer, for if the bank did not invest 
in such paper, he would have to pay a still higher rate for his loan. 

II. PROPOSALS FOR REFORM 

For some years the sentiment has been growing, that agricul- 
tural-credit facilities in this country are inadequate, that rates 
are too high and that in general credit institutions discriminate 
against the farmer, who has to get along with unorganized credit 
and endure the attendant evils. As remedies, there are suggested 
the formation of cooperative unions for the supply of personal 
credit and the creation of land-mortgage banks, the funds of 
which shall be obtained through the issue of debenture bonds. 
Certain states have taken the initiative in this reform by the 
removal of the restrictions on the formation of cooperative credit 
unions or by holding out special inducements for the creation of 
mortgage institutions. During the last two years the question of 
agricultural credit has claimed the attention of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, which, in cooperation with the Southern Commercial 
Congress, sent a commission to Europe in the spring of 19 13 
to make a first-hand investigation of agricultural-credit conditions. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 957 

European Methods and Experience 

In many European countries interesting and instructive results 
have been attained in the development of agricultural credit. It 
is from France and Germany that the United States has most to 
learn in this connection. Within the limits of the present article 
it is possible to give only the briefest outline of the agricultural- 
credit systems of these two countries. 

In Germany the greater part of the personal credit of the 
owners of small and medium-sized farms is furnished by the 
Raiffeisen cooperative banks. Previous to the formation of these 
banks, of which the first was founded about the middle of the 
nineteenth century, there were no organized credit institutions to 
which such farmers could apply. Hence they were dependent 
on private lenders and were preyed on by usurers. Their com- 
mon need and their common racial and religious sentiment facili- 
tated the establishment of the Raiffeisen organization, which was 
based on the parish community, with the teacher, the priest and 
the public official as leaders. Out of these elements there grew 
a credit movement which is the admiration of the world and 
which has brought untold blessings to the German peasants. 
Not only has it afforded them ample and cheap credit but, through 
its educative influence, it has brought about their social regenera- 
tion. But the advocates of a similar system for this country 
overlook the fact that the conditions which made the German 
movement successful are almost entirely wanting in the United 
States. American farmers are not poverty-stricken ; they are not 
victims of the usurer, and they are not without organized credit 
facilities ; in neither race nor religion have they any bond of 
union ; nor is the teacher, the priest or the official a leader in 
their community life. Furthermore, the struggle which has been 
required to create and maintain these institutions in Germany 
and to keep them true to their original purpose is too little 
understood in this country. 

In France most of the farmers are men of small affairs and 
without experience in the use of bank credit, and they were prac- 
tically without organized personal credit until the last quarter of 



958 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

the nineteenth century, when such leaders as Durand, Rayneri 
and Rostand undertook to do for France what had been done 
for Germany and Italy. 

The various banks which these leaders founded have rendered 
splendid service to small farmers, especially in southeastern 
France. But so great were the obstacles to be overcome that 
the progress of the movement was slow, and consequently the 
government felt called upon to undertake the reform of agricul- 
tural credit. After various attempts it finally created a system 
of local and regional banks which derived their funds from free 
grants by the Bank of France. These banks have made loans 
to farmers at the discount rate of the Bank of France and often 
at a much lower rate. Yet, despite the tempting rates, the 
French farmers, much to the chagrin of the government,' have 
availed themselves of but a small portion of these funds. No 
adequate provision for the reimbursement of the State has 
been made. 

In Germany a large part of the mortgage loaning is done by 
institutions especially organized for the purpose : ( i ) the Land- 
schaf ten, which are cooperative associations of borrowers; (2) the 
State and Provincial Banks, which are public institutions and 
(3) the Joint Stock Mortgage Banks, which are commercial insti- 
tutions organized under the Imperial Mortgage Bank Act of 1899. 
Of the other institutions which make mortgage loans, the sav- 
ings banks are the most important. The total farm-mortgage 
indebtedness in Germany is approximately $2,000,000,000, and 
of this slightly over one-half is borne by the specially organized 
institutions, as follows: (1) the Landschaften, $750,000,000; 
(2) the State and Provincial Banks, $100,000,000 and (3) the 
Joint Stock Mortgage Banks, $170,000,000. The savings 
banks bear $850,000,000. The special mortgage-credit insti- 
tutions derive funds from the sale of bonds issued against long- 
time, non-foreclosable mortgages. The savings banks, however, 
make the bulk of their loans against short-time, foreclosable 
mortgages. 

The 3.5 per cent bonds of the Landschaften sell at the present 
time around 95 and net the investor about 3.7 per cent. The 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 959 

addition of J per cent to this rate to cover the costs of admin- 
istration and the contribution to the reserve fund makes the 
farmer's rate from 4 to 4.5 per cent. He also pays the costs of 
appraisement and of making out the papers. The rates of the 
State and Provincial Banks and of the savings banks are slightly 
higher, while those of the joint-stock mortgage banks are from 
1 per cent to J per cent higher. That German farmers enjoy 
exceptionally favorable rates is shown by the fact that Landschaft 
bonds bearing the same rates as government securities are usually 
quoted only from 1 to 2 points below the latter. 

The only special mortgage-loan institution in France is the 
Credit Foncier, founded in 1852. This institution was intended 
to render to the farmers of France the same service which the 
Landschaften render to those of Germany. It enjoys a monopoly 
of the right to issue real-estate mortgage bonds, and has become 
a powerful and world-famed institution. But it has signally failed 
to realize the hopes of its founders. Of the total rural-mortgage 
indebtedness of France, amounting to about $3,000,000,000, a 
little less than one-tenth is borne by the Credit Foncier. Bonds 
recently issued (for example, in November, 19 12) bore a 4.5 per 
cent rate. To this must be added the .6 per cent allowed for 
administration and the expense of making the loan, which the 
farmer pays and which in France is very heavy. Therefore, the 
French farmer is paying about the same rate as the farmers in 
the best agricultural districts of the United States. 

Impressed by the fact that in Europe debenture bonds play 
so important a part in mortgage loans, the advocates of the 
reform, whether state or federal, of mortgage credit in this 
country base their various schemes on the issue of debenture 
bonds. But these enthusiasts have failed to understand the limi- 
tations of this very delicate credit instrument and, owing to 
lack of sufficient information, have exaggerated the success of 
Europeans in making debenture-bond loans ; and furthermore, 
they have not attached sufficient weight to the great differences 
between European and American conditions. 

The debenture bond resembles the railroad bond and the in- 
dustrial bond in being impersonal, since the borrower and the 



g6o READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

investor do not come into personal relation with one another; 
but it differs from them in being issued, not against a unit of 
property, under one management, but against a constantly changing 
mass of unrelated units of property, of which the management, 
in a country like the United States, may undergo a complete 
change in the course of a few years. Owing to this peculiarity 
of the security of debenture bonds, the greatest caution must be 
exercised in their issue. . Among the farms constituting the se- 
curity, there must be uniform conditions, well-established agri- 
cultural practices, little danger of disaster from crop failure or 
other cause and comparative absence of the speculative element 
from land values. Evidently the requirements are more nearly 
met in Europe than in the United States. In the greater part, 
indeed, of the agricultural area of our country they are not met at 
all. This is true of most of the South, most of the region west 
of the Missouri river and considerable parts of our best agricultural 
states — for instance, northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, 
northern Minnesota and southern Illinois. And even in the 
same communities there are often wide variations in this respect. 

The accurate appraisement of farms against which debenture 
bonds are to be issued is of the greatest importance. But it is 
exceedingly difficult, because farm incomes are subject to wide 
variation and farmers do not, as a rule, keep books. Hence, 
wherever debenture bonds are issued to a considerable extent, 
the appraisement is performed by public authorities, or, if not, is 
usually based on public tax valuations. In Germany, the Land- 
schaften make their own appraisement, but usually on the basis 
of the tax-assessment lists ;. and the same method is used by 
those joint-stock mortgage banks which, owing to their having 
been established before the law of 1899, are permitted to make 
their own appraisements. 

Owing to its extreme centralization, the great mortgage bank 
of France, the Credit Foncier, has found appraisement difficult 
and expensive — a fact which has tended to restriction of its 
farm-mortgage loaning. 

It is hardly necessary to point out that in the United States 
there is little to guide us in making appraisements. Changes in 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 961 

ownership are frequent, farmers keep books much less than in 
Europe and tax valuations afford no guide whatever. Since de- 
benture bonds are issued against long-term loans, there must be 
supervision of each loan after it is made, to insure that the claims 
of the contract shall be lived up to, the taxes paid, depreciation 
of the property prevented and so on. And as mortgages are 
gradually paid off and new ones substituted, great care must be 
exercised to prevent the impairment of the general security for 
the bonds through the substitution of inferior risks. In the 
United States the expenses of appraisement and supervision in- 
cident to the making of debenture-bond loans would be much 
greater than in Europe, and still further expense would result 
from the greater uncertainty of land titles. 

The great cost of making debenture-bond loans accounts for 
the fact that in Europe the small farmers have not been able as 
a class to avail themselves of the advantages of such loans, since 
the profits are more than offset by the cost of making them. 
Furthermore, while it is generally conceded that in the long run 
the small farmer is as good a risk as the large farmer, yet owing 
to his lack of reserves, there is greater danger of foreclosure or 
forced management ; and these would involve expense out of all 
proportion to the size of the loan. And finally investors are preju- 
diced against mortgage bonds issued against a mass of small loans. 

The Landschaften are composed chiefly of large farmers. 
They do make some very small loans, it is true, but the number 
of such loans is comparatively insignificant and the average size 
of the loans is large. The joint-stock mortgage banks of Ger- 
many loan almost exclusively to large landowners. The Credit 
Foncier also confines its loans chiefly to large farmers, as the 
expense involved makes loans under $1000 unprofitable. In 
191 2 the average size of its agricultural loans was $5000. The 
mortgage-bond institutions of Italy grant each year only a very 
small percentage of the loans applied for. That the small farmer 
is not served is shown by the fact that in 191 2 the average size 
of their farm loans was $18,000. 

This inability of the credit institutions to satisfy the needs of 
the small farmer has led the various governments to come to the 



962 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

rescue by the establishment of special state-aided institutions. In 
Germany these are the State and Provincial Banks, noted above. 
In Denmark the constant complaint of the small landowners led 
to the establishment of special institutions, the bonds of which 
are guaranteed by the state. In France a recent law provides for 
state loans to small farmers. 

The inability, however, of the debenture-bond system, even with 
state aid, to meet the needs of the small farmer is illustrated by 
the history of the German state and provincial institutions. They 
have been excellently managed, and no pains have been spared 
to win the support of the small farmers. But while numbers 
of small farmers have been accommodated, the rigidity of the 
system leads many to prefer to patronize the savings banks or 
the private lenders, despite the greater risk of foreclosure. 

A further illustration of the inability of the debenture-bond 
system to adjust itself to agricultural conditions is afforded by the 
fact that in Germany during the past decade the greater part of 
the new mortgage loans have been made, not by the debenture- 
bond institutions, but by non-specialized agencies, although the 
former have greatly increased the amount of their loans in other 
directions. This situation calls for some explanation. In the first 
place, with the increase of mortgage indebtedness in Germany 
there has been an increase in the. proportionate number of the 
less desirable risks and also an increase in the percentage of mort- 
gage indebtedness on the old risks, with a resulting decrease of 
the margin of safety. Under such conditions amortization is nec- 
essary as a means of security. But these very conditions make it 
difficult to exact amortization. Even farmers favorably situated as 
to debt find amortization payments burdensome. In Germany and 
Denmark, where it was formerly the general custom to require 
amortization of long-time loans, the amortization principle was 
found to be unsuited to farming conditions ; and except in the 
case of the German joint-stock banks, it has been practically aban- 
doned save when amortization is needed to give added security. 
It is perfectly evident that in the United States compulsory amor- 
tization would debar from credit not only the farmers of the newer 
regions where capital is scarce but also those farmers of the older 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 963 

regions who are seeking to become owners and whose capital has 
been exhausted by the first payments. 

Secondly, it has been found in Europe increasingly difficult to 
market the debenture bonds at favorable rates owing to growing 
competition of other securities. In this country it has been gener- 
ally assumed that such bonds would be so eagerly sought by in- 
vestors that they would bear a rate of interest second only to that 
borne by bonds of the federal government. The probable rate 
has been estimated at 5 per cent and by many even at 4 per cent. 
Here, again, European experience has been disregarded. The 
bonds of the early Landschaften had the moral support of a 
powerful king. In the oldest Landschaften the security included 
all the property of the district, and in later times it has included 
all that of the borrowing members. The bonds were issued at a 
time when land was a chief source of wealth and therefore the 
main field of investment ; and before the Landschaften were 
obliged to meet any considerable competition their bonds had 
already become familiar to investors and gained their confidence 
— confidence, it should be added, which has never been abused. 
But despite these favoring conditions, the bonds have gained only 
a local market, and the attempt to broaden the market by the 
formation of a Central Landschaft was unsuccessful. It is ad- 
mitted that under present conditions the Landschaften cannot 
make loans at lower rates than can unorganized agencies. So 
that the only inducements they can offer borrowers are the longer 
term and the pre-payment privilege. 

The Credit Foncier, as is well known, resorts to a lottery to 
facilitate the sale of its bonds, but it does not attempt to compete 
with unorganized agencies for the mass of French farm loans. 

If in Europe, despite the favoring conditions, the farm deben- 
ture bond finds a market with difficulty owing to the competition 
of other securities, how many times more difficult would be the 
marketing of such bonds in the United States, where such favor- 
ing conditions are wanting, and the obstacles to be overcome 
are much greater ! In this country land is not regarded, as in 
Europe, as the foundation of national prosperity, and landowner- 
ship is not the basis of social distinction both among people of 



964 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

high and of low degree, nor is there the same devotion to the 
farm home. And, furthermore, social conditions are not such that 
farmers would be willing to assume joint liability. Our experi- 
ence with land banks and debenture bonds has not been so fortu- 
nate as to inspire confidence in new ventures in this direction ; 
and while it may be readily conceded that a repetition of the 
mistakes of former years may be avoided, it will take some effort 
to overcome the prejudice which these mistakes engendered. 

Furthermore, the debenture bond would have to meet the com- 
petition of a flood of securities with which investors are thor- 
oughly familiar and in which they have confidence. Apart from 
corporation and municipal bonds, which have a wide market, 
there are in every locality, county, village and school district 
bonds which are backed by the taxing power of the community 
and the issue of which is carefully guarded. Such bonds, with 
few exceptions, bear a rate of interest much higher than that 
which the enthusiastic advocates of debenture bonds expect them 
to bear. How can it be expected that investors will pay more 
for a bond secured by a farm than for a school-district bond 
practically secured by the mutual guarantee of all the farmers 
of the community ? 

Finally, there are already in the field excellent agencies — 
mortgage companies — with well-established reputations and large 
assets, which give the investor all the advantages held out by the 
debenture-bond company, with the added advantage, as regards 
securities, of having the individual mortgage turned over to him. 
And it is difficult to see wherein the debenture-bond company 
could offer the borrower lower rates of interest or, in general, 
any better terms than these companies offer. The supposed 
advantage of market ability which is claimed for the debenture 
bond is of but little practical moment, since, as we have seen, 
the market for such bonds is very restricted, and they are usually 
bought as a permanent investment. 

Nor has state aid been of any great assistance in increasing 
the marketability of the bonds or, in general, in advancing the 
cause of agricultural credit. The state never allows itself to be 
treated as the ordinary investor. It always requires more and gives 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 965 

less. Making the bonds of the Landschaften legal investment 
for trust funds and the like has made it harder, Trosien declares, 
for farmers to obtain credit from these institutions, because it has 
forced the latter to employ more rigid methods in making loans. 
Not only does direct financial aid by the state tend to de- 
moralize the individual but in the long run it also dries up 
the sources of credit. This is the testimony of most of the 
Europeans who have given their lives to the solution of the 
problems of agricultural credit. Some of them at first advocated 
state aid ; but when confronted with its results, they became its 
ardent opponents. In response to appeals from the leaders of 
the cooperative-credit movement, for example, the Prussian Gov- 
ernment established the Prussian Central Cooperative Bank ; but 
despite the excellent management of the bank, it soon became 
apparent that it was stifling the cooperative-credit movement, 
and the latter has for some time been trying to shake itself 
free from the Bank's grasp. In a recent letter to the writer 
a leading German professor of economics states, "It is true that 
the central cooperative banks of the farmers, namely, the Agri- 
cultural Central Loan Bank of the Raiffeisen cooperative societies 
and the Agricultural Imperial Cooperative Bank in Darmstadt, 
have not thriven well. The main reason is that the Central 
Cooperative Bank, founded in Prussia w T ith the aid of an interest- 
bearing state loan, has drawn to itself the equalization business 
of the provincial central cooperative banks. The Prussian Central 
Cooperative Bank is very cleverly and energetically administered, 
so that the. competing institutions were in a difficult position." 
At the International Cooperative Congress in 1894 the question 
of state subventions received much attention. A few extracts 
will show the drift of the statements made on this occasion by 
the European leaders. Doctor Alberti of Germany declared, 
" Every manner of subvention by the state must be rejected. 
And my opinion, supporting this argument, is based on forty 
years' experience." Herr von Elm expressed strong objection 
to state aid and said that the state should confine its efforts to 
education and emancipating laws, that it should " give the agri- 
culturists elbow room and let them alone." M. Fiiredi of Hungary 



966 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

stated, " In spite of state aid lavished on the central credit or- 
ganization, the rate of interest is 7 to 8 per cent for money 
advanced by the state gratis out of the taxes " ; and Doctor 
Karacsonyi, also of Hungary, declared, V There are no successes 
to be put to the credit of state aid. Money so lightly got is the 
producer of extravagance." Similar utterances came from Wrabetz 
of Austria, and from Chiousse and Durand of France. 



Legislation Proposed 

In conclusion, a sketch may be given of the bills now pending 
in Congress for promoting agricultural credit. 

The American Commission published its report in the autumn 
of 191 3 ; and about the same time a bill known as the Fletcher 
Bill, the provisions of which were supposed to embody the 
opinions of the Commission, based on their European inquiries, 
was introduced in the Senate. It provided for the formation of 
local and state land banks and a federal land bank situated at 
Washington. The local banks were to issue debenture bonds, 
which were to be guaranteed by the state bank, and, if necessary, 
by the central bank ; and financial assistance from the United 
States Treasury was provided for. 

Although the Fletcher Bill was supposed at the time to embody 
the opinions of the Commission, it did not meet with the approval 
of the administration, and was subsequently withdrawn. In its 
place there was introduced, with the approval of the administra- 
tion, the Moss-Fletcher Bill. This provided for the establishment 
of National Farm Land Banks to be under the immediate direc- 
tion of a special Commissioner, who should preside over a Bureau 
of Farm Land Banks to be created in the Department of the 
Treasury. Such banks might be organized by any ten persons 
contributing a minimum capital of $10,000, of which 50 per cent 
was to be immediately paid up. They were empowered to accept 
local deposits up to 50 per cent of their paid-up capital and sur- 
plus, to receive postal-savings funds to the same extent on a par 
with other government depositories, and even to engage in gen- 
eral banking business. But their chief power lay in their right 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 967 

to issue debenture bonds against rural real-estate mortgages for 
a period not exceeding thirty-five years. Bonds were to be issued 
only against loans running for more than five years. The bond 
issue was limited to fifteen times the capital and surplus of each 
bank and was to be secured by first mortgages on farm lands 
located in the state where the bank was situated. An attempt 
was made to give standing to the bonds by making them legal 
investment for time deposits of national banks and of savings 
banks in the District of Columbia and for trust funds and estates 
administered by the United States courts, and by providing that 
they might be used as security for loans from national banks to 
national farm land banks or to individuals. The value of the 
mortgages was to be at least equal to the par value of the bonds 
outstanding. The rate of interest charged for the loan should 
not exceed the rate on the bonds by more than 1 per cent, which 
should cover all administration charges. The bill also prescribed 
the purposes for which loans might be secured : (a) to ' ' complete 
the purchase of agricultural lands mortgaged ; (b) to improve and 
to equip such lands for agricultural purposes ; and (c) to pay and 
discharge debts secured by mortgages or deeds of trust on said 
lands." Loans were not to exceed 50 per cent of the value of 
improved farm lands, or 40 per cent in the case of unimproved 
land. The appraisement was to be made by a committee of three, 
appointed by the board of directors from their own body. 

Numerous other bills were also introduced at about the same 
time as the Moss-Fletcher Bill, among which the Bathrick Bill 
deserves attention. This provided for loans by the government, 
at a rate not to exceed 41 per cent, to farmers direct or through 
farm credit associations which should become surety for all mort- 
gages made through them. The government was to borrow, at a 
rate not to exceed 3! per cent, the funds to be used for this pur- 
pose ; and the distribution of such funds was to be made by 
a bureau to be established in the Department of Agriculture. 

Extensive hearings on the Moss-Fletcher Bill were held, 
during which the impression gained ground among members of 
Congress that this was not radical enough to satisfy the farmers, 
that it was a bankers' bill drawn in the interest of the lenders 



968 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

rather than of the borrowers and that it was inadequate to afford 
the needed relief. It was claimed that the Bathrick Bill had the 
support of the farmers' organizations. The hearings also brought 
out the fact that the Moss- Fletcher Bill by no means met the 
unanimous approval of the members of the Commission. The 
upshot of the matter was that the Moss-Fletcher Bill was with- 
drawn and the Committee on Banking and Currency gave out 
the statement that an expert had been summoned to draw a new 
bill. This was subsequently introduced under the name of the 
Federal Farm Loan Act. 

The Federal Farm Loan Bill differed radically from its pre- 
decessors. It aimed .to create a system analogous to the newly 
established federal bank system. Its administration was placed 
under the control and direction of the Federal Reserve Board, 
which was to appoint a Farm Loan Commissioner. Any number 
of natural persons not less than five might form a National Farm 
Loan Association, whose application for a charter must be passed 
upon by the Farm Loan Commissioner. The capital stock of such 
an association should not be less than $10,000; and this stock 
might be taken on the Building and Loan Association plan. The 
cooperative principle was also recognized in the provision that 
loans should be made to shareholders only. The association was 
to have the power to make loans on first farm mortgages only, 
the rules governing the making of the loans following the general 
lines of the Moss-Fletcher Bill except that no power to issue 
bonds was granted the association and that appraisal was placed 
in the hands of the Farm Loan Commissioner. 

The Federal Reserve Board further was to establish as many 
Federal Land Bank districts as there are Federal Reserve dis- 
tricts. In each one of these districts there should be organized 
a Federal Land Bank, with nine directors, three appointed by the 
board, six elected by the farm associations. Each association 
must subscribe for at least $1000 of capital stock of the Land 
Bank, and each Land Bank must, before beginning business, have 
at least $500,000 in capital stock. In case a bank failed to get 
this amount subscribed ? it shall be the duty of the Secretary of 
the Treasury to subscribe the said unsubscribed balance." The 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 969 

Land Banks (not the associations) were to have power to issue, 
subject to the approval of the Federal Reserve Board, and to sell 
farm-loan bonds at a rate of interest on such bonds not to exceed 
5 per cent. The trustees of the postal savings banks were directed 
to employ in the purchase of farm-loan bonds, if they could be 
obtained below par, the funds withdrawn from postal savings 
depositories ; and they might use their discretion in purchasing 
them at par. It was further provided that the Secretary of the 
Treasury, on application from one or more of the Federal Land 
Banks, should purchase from the Land Banks farm-loan bonds 
not previously issued or sold, in an amount not to exceed 
$50,000,000 in any one year. Varied and far-reaching powers of 
supervision were given to the Federal Reserve Board. 

This bill should have met the approval of those who believed 
that the Moss-Fletcher Bill did not go far enough. It was 
certainly not a bankers' bill, because all chance for private 
initiative and all possibility of profit were shut out. Moreover, 
there was a superabundance of federal supervision and financial 
assistance. But this federal assistance was made dependent on 
the formation by private initiative of farm-loan associations "and 
the bill carefully removed all incentive to such action. 

The administration, however, soon let it be known that it 
was unalterably opposed to the granting of financial aid by the 
federal government, and all attempts to put through a rural- 
credits bill were abandoned for the current session. 

A perusal of the numerous bills presented and of the volumi- 
nous reports of the hearings must convince one that there is an 
utter lack of adequate information as to the actual credit needs 
of the farmer and of the extent to* which existing agencies are 
supplying them. And moreover, when one studies the measures 
in detail he discovers that instead of profiting by the experience 
of Europeans our legislators have proposed measures which these 
have avoided or abandoned. Credit agencies in great variety have 
come into being in the United States to meet the demands of 
an undeveloped, unstandardized agriculture. The evils of this 
lack of credit organization have been greatly exaggerated, but the 
time has probably come for more organization. Such organization 



970 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 

must, however, be attained gradually, and adapted to the peculiar 
conditions of this country. European methods must be used 
with caution. It is exceedingly doubtful, for example, whether 
the debenture-bond system is feasible for any considerable part 
of the country. If European experience has anything to tell us 
about state aid, it is " Beware." 

While there is need of federal legislation, the bills thus far 
introduced have provided for too much centralization and too 
much federal interference in a country as large as this and with 
such varied conditions. A general plan of organization for the 
entire country is requisite ; but it should be left to the individual 
states to determine the practical details of administration and 
control. The conditions of agriculture in this country do not 
warrant special legislation, such as has been proposed, limiting 
the operations to agricultural land ; nor are the farmers asking 
for it. Not only does such legislation do violence to our political 
sense, but in this particular case it would defeat its own end. 

In the final analysis, the solution of the problem of rural credit 
is in the hands of the farmers themselves. They must put their 
business on a more efficient basis and must learn to work to- 
gether for their mutual interest. The former is a problem of 
farm management, the latter, one of rural organization. That the 
shortcomings of the American farmer in both these fields have 
at last been forced on the attention of the nation is evidenced 
by the many praiseworthy efforts which are now being put forth 
by so many agencies to remove these obstacles in the way of 
agricultural progress. 



INDEX 



Acreage in crops, 41 

Agrarian changes in sixteenth cen- 
tury, 168 

Agrarian history, German, 223 

Agrarian movements in United States, 
645 

Agricultural credit, proposals for re- 
form, 956 ; European methods and 
experience, 956; legislation pro- 
posed, 966 

Agricultural depression, in England, 
204; remedies for, in the United 
States, 730 

Agricultural development, during Civil 
War, 302; from 1900 to 1910, 317 

Agricultural discontent, 699 

Agricultural prosperity and commer- 
cial expansion, 24 

Allen, W. F, 151 

Allodial tenure in the United States, 
378 

Andrew, A. P., 5 

Barber, M. A., 547 

Bastable, C. F., 898 

Bavaria, Iowa and, crop yields, 148 

Beet sugar, 914, 919; production of, 
in the United States, 921 ; compe- 
tition of, with grain, 925 

Belgium, land system of, 433 

Bills of lading in law, 838 

Brodrick, G. C., 352 

Buildings and machinery, overinvest- 
ment in, 139 



Business, the farmer's, $y$ 
Business conditions as affected by 

crops, 6 
Business unit, size of agricultural, 

132, 580 

Capital as related to farm income, 

580 
Carver, E. K., 851, 858, 865, 883, 

887 
Cherington, P. T., 914 
Chicago as a grain market, 303 
Civil War, agriculture during, 302 ; 

influence of, on farm machinery, 

3ii 
Code Napoleon, 373 
Commission men, jobbers and, 769 
Congested Districts Board, 906 
Co-operative purchasing by Grangers, 

658 
Corporation farming, 144 
Cost, of producing crops, 46 ; of food, 

117; of distributing eggs, 823 
Cotton gin, 267 
Cotton production, 267 ; and balance 

of trade, 20 
Coulter, J. L., 317 
Credit, agricultural, 936; personal, 

942 ; mortgage, 944 
Credit Foncier, 959 
Credit system in cotton belt, 296 
Crop yields, 28, 31, 101, 148; reasons 

for increase of, 106; relation of, to 

profits, 600 



971 



972 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Dairying in North Atlantic states, 502 
Danish farmhouse, 483 
Denmark, small-holdings, 478 
Depopulation, rural, 570 
Displacement of labor by machinery, 54 
Distribution of products, cost of, 117 
Diversified farming in Minnesota, 348 
Dwellings, ownership of, in the United 
States, 493 

Egg marketing, early method of, 784 ; 

indirect method of, 793 ; direct 

method of, 810 
Eggs, grading of, 798 ; prices of, 814 
Emerick, C. F., 699 
Enclosures, 1 63 ; in Oxfordshire since 

sixteenth century, 195 
Entailment, 362 
Estate farming, 225 
Evicted tenants, 909 
Exodus, agricultural, 559 
Exports of farm products, 8, 17, 323 

Farm crops compared with other 
products, 1 5 

Farm investment, 632 

Farm labor, displacement of, by ma- 
chinery, 53 

Farm property, increase of, 326 

Farm tenancy in Europe as compared 
with the United States, 491 

Farm values, in the United States, 
498 ; in North- Central states, 511; 
in Southern States, 523 ; in West- 
ern States, 538 

Financial centers, influence of crops 
upon, 7 

Fite, E. D., 302 

Foreign trade, American farm crops 
and, 10 

France, land system of, 410 



Free labor in cotton production, 287 
Freight rates in various countries, 7 1 5 
Fuchs, C. J., 223 

Gavelkind, 357 

Gay, E. F., 163 

German agrarian history, 223 

Goldenweiser, E. A., 148 

"Granger legislation," 652, 655 

Granger movement, the, 645 

Gray, H. L., 183 

Haggard, H. Rider, 478, 558 

Hammond, M. B., 267 

Hart, A. B., 254 

Haymaking machinery, 39 

Hedging, 845 

Hibbard, B V H., 498, 523, 536 

Holdings, large and small, in France, 

425 
Holland, land system of, 433 
Holmes, G. K., 487 
Home enterprise, farm as a, 135 
Homestead acts, 260 
Honey in medieval agriculture, 1 54 
Horse power of steam in the United 

States, 705 

Improved land in farms, 319 
Inclosures, in England, 163 
Income, the farmer's, 630 
Inheritance of landed property, 354; 

in France, 413 
Investment in farm equipment, 139 
Iowa and Bavaria crop yields, 148 
Irish Land Purchase Act, 898 

Jobbers and commission men, 769 

Kelley, O. H. (founder of the Grange), 
646 



INDEX 



973 



Labor, productivity of agricultural, as 
affected by machinery, 43 ; agricul- 
tural, 547; English agricultural, 558 

Labor income, of farmer 576, 585 

Labor saving by machinery, 44, 51 

Land grants, to states, 261 ; to rail- 
roads, 262 

Land reform in England, proposals 
for, 400 

Land tenure, 352 ; in France, 410 ; in 
Belgium and Holland, 433 

Landowning farmers in England, 
204 

Landschaften, 958 

Laveleye, fimile de, 433 

Leslie, T. E. Cliff e, 410 

Machinery, influence of, 32 ; history 
of, 33 ; influence of, on general 
welfare of independent farm oper- 
ators, 82 

McVey, Frank L., 666 

Manorial system in Germany, 225, 

239 
Manure, use of, in Flanders, 435 
Marketing, of farm products, 764 ; 
studies in egg-, 783 ; of farm prod- 
ucts in France, 851 ; of butter in 
Charente, 851 ; of butter in Allier, 
856; of butter in Normandy, 858; 
of Danish butter in England, 865 ; 
of peaches in Lyons, 874; of gages 
from Agen, 881 ; of vegetables in 
London, 883 ; of onions and fruit 
in London, 887 ; of onions in Man- 
chester, 888; of potatoes in Man- 
chester; 890 
Markets, mediaeval produce, 827 
Middle Ages, agriculture in, 151 
Minnesota, wheat production in, 
338 



Mortgage indebtedness in the United 
States, 938 

Negro farmers, per cent of in South- 
ern States, 528, 532 

Omaha platform of Populist Party, 670 
Organization, rural, 764 
Ownership of land, 352 

Parcel post, 570 

Patrons of Husbandry, 646 

People's Party, 667 ; financial views 
of, 634 

Phosphate rock, exportation of, 127 

Pierson, Charles W., 645 

Plow, early use of, in America, 34 ; 
Daniel Webster's, 35 

Plowing in medieval agriculture, 158 

Policy, national, with respect to agri- 
culture, 898 

Pope, J. E., 936 

Population, shifting of, 60 ; increase of 
agricultural, during Civil War, 312 

Populist movement, the, 666 

"Potter Bill," 655 

Pre-emption acts, 258 

Prices, crop yields, 101 ; in England 
from 1797 to 1833, 205; in medi- 
eval times, 162; of farm products 
in United States from 1885 to 1 895, 
719; cold storage of eggs, numbers 
taken in and out, 802 

Primogeniture, 352; arguments in 
favor of, 382 ; domestic aspects 
of, 393 

Profits of farming, 130, 636; on very 
large farms, 596 ; relation of crop 
yields to, 600 ; on diversified farms, 
616; of tenant farmers, 640; of 
landlords, 643 



974 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Public lands (United States), 254; 
periods in the history of, 258 

Quaintance, H. W., 32 
Quality of farm products as affected 
by machinery, 5 1 

Railroads, government ownership of, 

advocated by Populists, 689 
Railway mileage in United States, 715 
Reaper, 36 

Roman law of inheritance, 354 
Rural economy, cultural value of, 2 
Rural wealth and urban wealth com- 
pared, 705 

St. Louis convention, 669 

Size of farms, 580 ; as affected by 
machinery, 63 ; as affected by 
slavery, 289 

Slave labor, in cotton production, 
272 ; and soil exhaustion, 285 ; as 
affecting size of farms, 289 

Slaves, cost of maintenance, 282 

Small-holdings in Denmark, 478 

Soil fertility, maintenance of, in cot- 
ton production, 276; of Ireland 
and Flanders compared, 434 

Southern agriculture (United States), 
267 

Speculation, distinguished from gam- 
bling, 828; mediaeval, distinguished 
from modern, 829 

Spillman, W. J., 630 

Squire, the English, 370 



State bounties, 914 
Syndicates, agricultural, in France, 
764 

Taussig, F. W., 919 

Taylor, H. C, 204 

Tenancy, in the United States, 487 ; 
in North Atlantic states, 498 ; in 
North Central states, 508 ; in 
Southern States, 523 ; in Western 
States, 536 ; in Europe as com- 
pared with the United States, 491 ; 
percentage of, 513, 523, 526, 543 

Thompson, C. W., 337, 769, 783 

Thomson, E. H., 636 

Threshing machines, first use of, in 
America, 37 

Timber-culture act, 260 

Transportation, relation of agriculture 
to, 714 

Usher, A. P., 827 

Value of farm crops, 1 5 
Villication, 231 

Wages, effect of machinery on, 73 
Warren, G. F., 101, 130, $y$ 
Wheat growing, movement of, 337 
Wilson, G. L., 851, 856, 874, 881, 

888, 890 
Wolff, Henry W., 764 
Wool growing in medieval England, 

153 

Yeoman farming, 183, 208 



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